Saudi Arabia: Appointment Alert!
From ExecutivePlanet.com
Making appointments
Generally, businesses in the Kingdom open at about nine in the morning, close for Dhuhr prayer, open afterwards for half an hour or so, close for the afternoon and then re-open for the hours from five to ten pm [closing for Maghrib and Isha' prayers during these hours].
Government offices and banks open an hour or so earlier with the former not re-opening in the evening and the latter closing finally after Isha' prayer. Government offices are open Saturday to Wednesday, inclusive. Banks are open Thursday mornings as well and most retail businesses observe a seven-day working week.
As in the west, the basic working week is 5 _ days, save that the week begins on Saturday instead of Monday.
The importance Saudis attach to courtesy and hospitality can cause delays that prevent keeping to a strict schedule. It is therefore customary to make appointments for times of day rather than precise hours.
Although prayer times vary around the year, current ones are always printed in the daily newspapers.
To say “between Maghrib and Isha” is more common and practical than to specify 6 or 7 o'clock.
As it is exceptional for meetings to span a prayer time, one can usually rely on punctuality for appointments immediately after prayers. Add to that the universal advantage of booking the first appointment in the morning and one should comfortably be able to schedule a minimum of three daily appointments.
Whenever possible, however, it is better not to book an appointment but merely turn up on the off chance. If you already know the person, you would be expected to pay an impromptu social call whenever in the area anyway. Of course this works both ways, so that one must be prepared to tolerate others popping in to eavesdrop on his own business as well. Within reason, the higher the level, the better this works. A minister's diary is likely to be full well ahead, but by going around and being prepared to wait, there is a good chance of exploiting an unanticipated gap between appointments. It is always a good idea, however, to take along a letter that you can leave with the man's secretary should you not see him.
Unlike in the west, Saudi secretaries do not normally have authority to make appointments for their bosses.
At higher levels [rarely below the rank of deputy-minister], what might be called coffee protocol enables keeping to schedule. On arrival, a coffee-bearer is summoned, who pours thin, cardamom-flavoured Saudi coffee from a large brass dallah into thimble cups. Three cups are the normal polite limit but he will keep pouring until the visitor shakes his empty cup to signal he has had enough. The man then leaves and discussion begins.
As always, familiarisation chitchat precedes business.
If the coffee bearer is summoned a second time, it is a polite indication that time is short. The visitor should accept more coffee but not linger more than five minutes afterwards. To do so would be blatantly to overstay his welcome. This applies, however, only to the service of Saudi coffee from a dallah. Ordinary tea by the glass or Turkish coffee by the demitasse as normally served in offices carries no such import.
Submit a Comment on this Article
