Hdizzle

Commercial Account Executive

Personal Narrative

Stuck in my current set up

Hey everyone!

Good day, lovely people.I've been dealing with this for a while now... My wife and I recently moved to Dubai, and I was fortunate to land a position with a rapidly growing scale-up in the GCC. I'm currently working as an Enterprise Sales Manager, but I'm finding it tough to adjust to the setup here. Let me know if I'm just being overly sensitive or if I should actually do something about this.My manager requires me to be in the office from Monday to Friday, 9am to 7pm. It's an open office, which means constant surveillance and limited freedom to move around. We're being micromanaged; for example, if I take a break downstairs for more than 20 minutes, I get texts from several colleagues asking where I am. The company has a policy allowing 7 days of work from home per month and 10 days of working remotely from anywhere, but this has been canceled for the sales team, leaving us stuck in the office.In an era where we have all the tools to work remotely and maintain some flexibility, I'm surprised by this setup. What can I do to address this without coming across as a complainer, especially since I've only been here for six months?

🙏 Mental Wellness

🧢 Sales Management

13

12 comments

Sort by:

unclespacejam

Politicker

4

ur dad’s brother

This is a tough one. I do wonder if your mgmt team feels less empathetic about providing more work / life balance knowing that working in the UAE allows for a much higher income because of no income taxes.

Additionally from what I know from experience/ close family member that work there as well, this seems to be the cultural expectation in many cases and how things are different than what we’re accustomed to in North America/ Europe. The only exception to this is those working in VP+ roles for the government/ Monarchy in the UAE, these are very released roles/ hours

Hdizzle

Contributor

3

Commercial Account Executive

Thank you for your response. The culture in the UAE is quite different, and I have friends with various setups. Therefore, I am considering two options: a) finding an alternative arrangement or b) discussing with management to see if they can adjust the current setup.

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

I have no experience/insight into the UAE but this is what I'd figure. I couldn't imagine it not being extremely different from what we see over here.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

1

War Room Community Manager

Hey Hdizzle, welcome to the War Room and great first post!

Just a couple of things I wanted to add before I get to your question:

Here you’ll be connecting with one of the best Sales people!

Keep commenting, posting, and engaging with people to drive value.

The advices that you’ll get here is truly gold.

Make sure to go through some more posts to get an idea how the ball rolls here.

Also, not sure if you’ve checked out the commission store yet. If not, I highly recommend. Earning commission points is also super easy, keep posting and engaging, the upvotes will give you the points.

Lastly, this is not LinkedIn, you can go as detailed as you want. It should just add value.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

1

War Room Community Manager

Cultural differences are such that this isn’t coming as a shock to me.

Many companies have these sort of measures to keep the employees in check. Not saying it’s right but saying I understand it.

If you’re having problems with this, why not to talk to the HR or hiring Manager or somebody?

Filth

Politicker

1

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Generally I would make sure you have backup employment secured before talking to anyone in mgmt. You never know how they are going to react to honest feedback. It being the UAE I would also be as polite as possible with whatever you do - it's not an area known to treat "complainers" well.

Best of luck but yeah when they take away stuff you signed on b/c of - it's time to start assuming they are full of shit across the board and it will get worse before it gets better (if it ever actually does).

lowhangersalesbanger

Executive

1

Account Executive

I would make sure your financial and job prospect ducks are lined up before talking with management. I have an associate that used to be a VP for a large restaurant business in Dubai and from what he told me managers can be a bit hasty to weed out complainers in all businesses, especially foreign workers. If work life balance is most important to you then weigh that against possible repercussions of speaking out.

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

sounds like indentured servitude

thisdoesntexist

Executive

1

Sales Consultant

That is a long day! And it is stressful to feel you are being monitored all the time. Line up ducks for sure, and on the off chance your wife is working also, adjust spending to live on one salary if things go sideways. Not sure what the job market is like over there, but only you can decide the level of risk you can afford to speak up. If you can stand to hold your tongue, then wait until you have great numbers to show your value to the org before complaining about policies everyone else seem accustomed to. Can you make it a mental game by comparing this to even more restrictive situations, ie. inmates with life sentences or terminal illness for example. Sorry to be macabre! But maybe it helps to shift your perspective. Good luck with this and update us along the path as to what you decide to do! Love to hear if you manage to negotiate any modifications or bounce.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

0

☕️

They want you there 10 hours a day?

Fuck that

They harass you when you’re not at your desk for a break?

Fuck that

Address it with your boundaries and convictions…and basic human respect. If they can’t see it as micromanagement and an insane breach of the employer employee relationship then I’d brush that resume off.

0

Retired Sales Professional

👍👍

0

Major Account Executive

No work from home options …bye . Not sitting in an office with idiots I don’t like for hours on end when my job can be done more efficiently at home .

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Tech Sales U

For employers

Hire sales talent Executive search

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.