Summer in Qatar as Nurse

Just yesterday, the Ministry of Labor released a notice reminding all companies and establishments especially those which engages in construction sites that the working hours of all employees/workers/labors should not exceed 11:30AM and at afternoon the work shall not start later than 3:00PM. The notice was in accordance to the memorandum No.16 of the ministry in relation to the extreme summer felt by the state. Extreme heat is typically recorded during the June until the end of September. The hottest mean temperature is usually 40 degree Celsius and even higher. There are instances that the state experiences 50 degree Celsius between June and August.

So, to lessen the number of people working in bare sites who experiences the ill effects of extreme heat and high humidity, the ministry obliges all employers to post the required time table and their workers/labors be notified. So any work sites which disobeys the memorandum would be sanctioned appropriately.

Change of working hours during summer in construction sites in Qatar

As a nurse from bare sites, summer season is the busiest duty for us. A considerable number of labors/workers experience heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and or even death in which they suddenly collapse while working which may be caused by working under  extreme hot weather and high humidity. Most commonly, the patient/s experiences severe headache, dizziness, dehydration, high blood pressures, hypoglycemia (blood sugar depletion); these signs and symptoms need immediate medical response and first aid from us. We even provides glucose solution with water and salt to replenish the water and minerals they have lost through perspiration.

Our company's work time table this summer season

My company, which is basically, engages in trading and construction industry also changed our working schedule from 6:30Am – 5:30PM to a broken working hours: 5:30AM – 11:30PM then from 3:00 – 7:30 PM. Personally, this schedule really sucks. It seems that I am on duty the whole day (of course without overtime pay). Imagine being in the clinic for 14 hours without overtime excluding the 2 hours trip we spent going from and to our accommodation. Most probably, there's no spare time left for me to play basketball or even watch a single movie. Tsk tsk.. this is just one of the bad parts of being an occupational health nurse based in construction sites. I always go with the labors schedule. Our labors working time is also my working time. As of this time, it’s almost 5:50PM. I should have been inside the bus on trip going back to our accommodation. But here I was, tipping my laptop’s keyboard. As a consolation to myself, if not with this present change of work schedules, maybe, it would take me some time to update again my blog. Now i have  ample time to think and write something worthwhile to post :) Alhamdullah!