Maori in the Middle East

When my wife Charmaine and I packed our bags and set off for Dubai in April 2008, the prospect of working in a brand new city built in the desert seemed very surreal. The main attraction of my desire to work in Dubai, was to work on amazing multi-storey buildings that pushed the boundaries of architectural and engineering limits.

Upon arrival in Dubai, I was not disappointed with the sheer size and scale of projects that I would be in charge of getting built – one US$100M 50+ storey hotel & office tower fit out, and a three tower 44-storey mixed use US$300M development consisting of hotel, office and residential towers. At first these dual project challenges proved quite daunting for a Maori Tongan engineer 17 hours flying time away from home, with no prior working experience overseas and whose previous largest project was an NZ$80M airport redevelopment. However, after four months of getting to know the various contractors, consultants, client representatives, and local authority representatives, I was well on the way to adding value to these projects through my arrangement of regular face-to-face meetings with each of these stakeholders. It was quite surprising to find that nearly all of the stakeholders I had to deal with on a regular basis enjoyed my kiwi style of straight talking advice while still being polite both in face to face interaction and in written correspondence. This consistent kiwi style was in stark contrast to project managers and engineers from the Middle East who were very aggressive during meetings but rather too polite or meek in written correspondence and at the other opposite end of the spectrum where western engineers could be quite blunt in written correspondence but rather timid during meetings. My next 16 months in Dubai would be characterized by negotiating this fine line of consistent enforcement and fairness to all parties on contractual matters.

To my surprise, the real challenge I found in Dubai was not the fast track engineering challenging working environment. Instead the social and personal lifestyle environment of living in Dubai proved to be by far the most difficult and sometimes dangerous aspect of working overseas. Three aspects of what we take for granted in NZ lifestyle which are totally different in Dubai are playing sport, drinking alcohol at dinner or while socializing with friends, and driving to and from work and for weekend getaways. Playing touch rugby in Dubai, means playing after 8pm at night or at 8am in the morning before the temperatures reach 40+ degrees by 10am after which point rehydration with more than water such as isotonic drinks was required. Drinking alcohol in Dubai is strictly limited to licensed premises which were usually hotels, or bars and restaurants located in hotels.  To have a beer or wine at home without fear of being arrested one had to obtain an alcoholic license with permission from your employer. Driving in Dubai meant driving aggressively, When I was driving from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, two tinted out 4x4 Range Rovers were flashing headlights from a distance, then honking their horn, then finally overtaking me as I was doing 140km/hr, apparently because I was driving too slow! These lifestyle challenges became even more challenging in summer with temperatures reaching 50 degrees during the day and lows of 35. During the holy month of Ramadan where food and drink were not to be consumed during daylight hours for Muslims and not to be seen to be consumed in public for non-Muslims, it took great personal conviction to respect these local customs during the sweltering heat of the Dubai summer. The good example of this was when I was arrived at site on the first day of Ramadan, the fridge where I usually kept my lunch had a padlock put on it to prevent the local (Muslim) workers from being tempted to take food before Iftar (the dinner at dusk when the stop fasting for the day). In the end, for the entire month of Ramadan I had to ask the site tea-boy to store my lunch and retrieve it at lunch time so that I was not found to be taking or eating food in front of the Muslim workers. Ultimately, it was our circle of friends outside of my work, which helped us survive our first Dubai summer, and the rest of our stay in Dubai. Without the help from our friends who could share how they got through their challenges when they first arrived, in terms of meeting new people, where to dine and socialise during summer and Ramadan, our stay in Dubai would have proved far more challenging and less enjoyable.

After my first summer in Dubai, I had finally accustomed to the weather, local customs and working environment, and decided to embark on an 18 months MBA programme offered by Cass Business School from City University London, but taught in Dubai. The MBA programme meant I was able to study alongside other professional expatriates from around the world as well as the local professional workforce. This networking experience proved to be rewarding in terms of international benchmarking of one’s own academic capabilities, but more importantly provided me with a window in to the local perspective of international business and their views on the overwhelming expatriate workforce presence in Dubai on a ration of 2 to 1. The demographics of my class was very humbling, with nearly all the expats able to converse in at least three languages, and being constantly astounded by some of the locals display of wealth of various expensive sports cars and diamond studded watches every day, At the end of the course however, I was privileged to study with my well travelled and educated peers, but I was also proud to contribute positively to our group assignments and ultimately to the classes 95% success rate in completing the 2 year course,

Disaster struck six months into my MBA course and 12 months into my 3 year contract, when the Global Financial Crisis hit Dubai with full force in May 2009. Clients stopped paying our firms bills, and had two months to find a new job. Every foreign contractor and consultant had to let go thousands of staff as the money literally dried up, with building sites left derelict and empty and expat staff leaving their cars at their apartment or the airport before departing from Dubai for good. Fortunately for me, I was able to find a job with my firm in Singapore, where I was to begin the next chapter of my overseas journey…