1- First of all, I don’t agree with the timings mainly because our public service work force is not that disciplined enough to devote the maximum amount of time available to work. You can argue that even if the official hours were to be extended to encompass the whole day, only those who would work would work – and you would be right. But at least extended time means more time for the supervisors to coerce the employee to produce.
2- Breaks in between are crucial to Maldivians. Coffee break, tea break, cigarette break, children pick up break etc. MUST be ensured in our “unique” society. Otherwise the boss gets labeled as an ignorant miscreant who just doesn’t give a rat’s ass.
3- Being disciplined in all aspects at work is a lost concept for Maldivians. The Civil Service Commission in my eyes has failed to create an effective, efficient and regulation abiding civil service workforce since the May of 2008. The CSC needs to play its role more effectively in order to educate the civil servants on their rights, the rights of the employer and what is expected by both of them. A performance appraisal at the end of the work year doesn’t guarantee that the employee performs when it isn’t backed by a reward and penalize system for those who perform and those who don’t.
4- A 30 minute break is STILL ensured within the new working hours. Wonder how many hours the employees will ACTUALLY work given the number of ‘breaks’ that employees take during the work day.
5- FACT: I would still become ravenously hungry by 12 pm. If my tummy starts growling, ignore it.
6- Moving on, the government SHOULD have given enough time for the regulations to be changed to adjust to the new working hours. Would have been better if it had been made effective from April 1, 2012. That would have at least given a semblance of time to the governing bodies to adjust their regulations accordingly.
7- Last but not the least, less time at work = MORE time for me to read! Hallelujah!
Adios!
Work of Art 
this change I believe is made for the heck of a change.
just to make the voting public happy. no matter what the consequences of it creates it does not matter. I think it is very irresponsible.
but then again. it would work well with some groups.
i’ll just hope for the best …
Amira,
My sentiments as well. A decision solely arrived at with the purpose of winning the approval of the so-called 90%.
To be honest this whole 8am -3pm doesn’t make sense to me (maybe to get peoples votes ya sure and maybe because i am too dumb to understand the entire complex decision making by the highly educated ministers and civil service of our country right now is the reason i just don’t get it).
But any justification apart from all those “maybes”, any reasons they provided like for extra activities, for parents to be with kids, to suck a lolly in the afternoon … that is just bullshit to me. The old 7am – 2 am would have made more sense then. That leaves the entire afternoon free for “most” people / mothers / fathers to go on with their social activities.
Work hours should not be changed like this with such careless thinking, its the amount of work they get done on government offices during current work times that should have been analyzed first before coming to a such a conclusion.
But who knows maybe Sheik Imran thought it would be better to end work at 3 pm so he can go to pray early and spend more time with his “you know who”. But then again when they will for such things to happen, Dr.Lambada has no choice to but dance on the drums and make it happen.
Faiyal,
Agree with you. Doesn’t make sense to me either. I also said the same thing, if they had wanted to really achieve what they wanted, 7:30 to 2:30 or 7:00 to 2:00 would have been better. But then again the parents would be offended wouldn’t they? How on Earth do you expect any parent to send kids off to school AND get ready for work by yourself? Those are big NO NO’s in our society regardless of the fact that the rest of the world has been operating on that for a long time now.
I guess when it all comes down to it, what we Maldivians want is to go back to the golden era of Maumoon. If they can erase the past 3 years from history, wipe out everyone who voted for a change, they would. All in the name of ethnic cleansing perhaps? And I know their supporters would cheer on, believing with all their might that the people working for a change are getting what they deserve. Utter BS!
as youve noted in points 1, 2 and 3; without a change in culture nothing will work. personally i prefer to start work at 7:30 to work 8 hours. and i suppose we will need to have that one hour break for food, prayer etc. i can do with 15 minutes though…we can even do without it. organize our work with short breaks and all. what counts is efficiency. with the kinda attitude we have now (take max salaan, take max leaves, spend as much hour out of office) nothing will help.
and the going to fetch children from schools and all everyday should stop. and going to bank every day. find other ways to do these things. adjust school hours again, well monitored day cares, better planning of our friggin lives (just think about the realities of life before making another baby) and shaking off the sense of entitlement we have, that we should have all good things and not even work for it really. that too with the constant bitching about how bad we are treated, because we dont get to spend two hours out of office every day. change in culture, is the most important thing.
Totally agree!