EK Housing Mess..

[decision time]

Since turning down the opportunity in EK, I’ve been watching developments closely, mainly out of curiosity. It’s only been over a month now and I can safely say that it seems to get worse there. Apart from the obvious inflation rate and poor pay package which was the fundamental reason for avoiding the place, it now transpires there is a BIG accommodation issue.

This is the icing on the cake for me even bothering to ponder any concerns about my initial decision, considering I was told that only a few months delay in permanent accommodation might be the case. It would seem that when you join, you are given a contract but if the company can’t honour their side of the contract, there is no recourse. In the contract it states that the company will provide you accommodation, but it now transpires that they can’t give you permanent accommodation for 6-12 months! No problems but who pays for storage or the fact that you may have to register in a number of schools, not once but twice, once for temporary accommodation and again when (if) permanent comes up, the new employee appears to pay for the majority of this, twice.

From comments on the ME forum, the standard of the temporary accommodation leaves a lot to be desired. Talk of permanent accommodation in Mirdif is also absurd. Having to try and sleep outside a circadian rhythmic sleep patterns is bad enough, now add variable aircraft noise to the equation and you are building a recipe for personal sanity. http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/circadian_rhythm_sleep_disorder.htm

The accommodation saga, coupled with the initial concerns about inflation and the obvious fatigue issues surrounding 24 layovers on ULR flights is… crazy. I now know that I have significantly increased my chances of enjoying retirement for a number of years instead of burning out or being burnt out.

It is sad that Emirates could easily afford to look after it’s staff and still make loads of dosh, but I guess managers in the airline, like all airlines, have got to shine and prove their jobs worth…. at our expense !