Thursday, October 29, 2009

The working class

So I finally started work as an analyst, woohoo... Right?

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job, its got the right mix of factors
for me. But one thing was a conversation I had with my coworkers on
pay. We work at an industrial plant, and therefore our company has a
natural emphasis on production. Unfortunately the pay structure isn't.

At my company we seperate employees by tiers, with each tier based on
a mix of experience, nationality (emiritisation issues) and years on
the job and pay them accordingly. But no mention of performance? Now
I'm not saying that performance doesn't factor in to our performance,
I'm saying that it isn't an explicit factor of performance.

I know for a fact that certain sharja govt jobs pay only increases
according to degrees attained, regardless of experience and
performance.

Dubai has some choice jobs in that line too (biased to something or
the other) why no standardization?

More on this as I find out...

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Sent from my mobile device

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Cityscape ... The saga continues

My curiosity is my downfall... That's what had me try the fish and
chips place at Dubai mall (Terrible)

Granted, it mightve been horrible, but that's what you get for
thinking greasy spoons could actually pass for a good meal.

Curiousity also took me to cityscape.. Here it is in 2 points of view:

1, The buyer / economist :
Luckily, the hype was toned down this year. Nonetheless you had the
wow-me factor in some of the stands, and prices... Of note was the
quiter nakheel stand, the crazy AD stands, and the general mood of the
place.

AD is building itself up a lot like Dxb did, and I'm looking at bloom
developers... They have a prime piece of property ala palm jumeira, a
premium pricing scheme ala palm jumeira, and phases 2 and 3 ala palm
deira and jebel ali, and was announced at the heart of the reccession
ala the universe .

Anyone see a trend?

I'm not saying it won't work, I'm saying bide your time. Don't launch
at the wrong time, scale it down properly (which to blooms credit they
did)... But the facts of a global recession are still clear, slow and
steady wins the race.

The marketing hype is still unreasonable. No supertowers, but a lot of
hardsells. My opinion is to follow Trump jrs. Train of thought on this
years cityscape, and tread carefully on a risk vs reward basis.

2: the social commentary:

Suprisingly Meeras had a stand up. This was a real upset for me, as
I live in Jumeira. Meeras hasn't been too popular among some local
circles since they would ask for your home in return for compensation.
Some locals don't want to move. Some locals don't want homes and
money. Some locals don't want another few years of messed up roads,
and churned up coastline.

Especially Jumeira, a place filled with history, there is a lot that
can be had focusing on its essential beauty: the people, the history,
the integration, than with another "new dubai" destination like dubai
marina.

Maybe there will be concessions for it, and ill get the best of both
worlds. But I doubt it.

It wasn't just the fish hurtin me...

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