What a load of dog's balls to say that here is where the "whinners" (whiners? whingers? winners?) post. Believe it or not, most people would just like those considering joining to have access to something they did not when they joined....the truth.
"A lot of happy people" in Dubai and Emirates? In my experience, totally untrue. There are many, many people who have accepted their lot for the short-term - the shortest they can manage - but that's hardly "happiness". What you call happy is usually people rationalizing their decision to themselves and those around them. We all do what we have to survive, and telling ourselves and those around us that things are great, the emperor really has clothes, Dubai is actually a real city, and on and on...it may help with coping, but it doesn't make it true.
But then what about Dubai and Emirates bears any resemblance to the truth? It's like a movie set, a cardboard cutout false-front name-brand paradise. Glitzy
PR machine, no substance.
Two colleagues of mine are leaving soon. One of them, I always took to be quite happy here, always positive on the surface and cheerful. But he confided in me privately that in truth, he has hated being here for quite some time and desperate to leave. Being a normally positive person and for the sake of his family, he suppressed his true opinions. Thankfully for him, he made a plan for his exit strategy and executed it. Makes me wonder how many others are in a similar state, that "quiet desperation"? Perhaps sometimes we don't even know how much our current situation is affecting us until leaving is a real plan, not just an abstract concept.
Interesting times!