The No Topic Topic

Talking Pink.. Mr Mason has very good taste in motor cars..

hi guys and dolls,

new here but not just landed in Saudi just waiting on my paper work and all goign well off to Yanbu next month, so if i make it no dought i will be on here alot, i like the idea of the topic and look forward to making some friends out there.

regards
Leo

Hi Leo

Welcome to the blog

miahannaleo wrote:

hi guys and dolls,

new here but not just landed in Saudi just waiting on my paper work and all goign well off to Yanbu next month, so if i make it no dought i will be on here alot, i like the idea of the topic and look forward to making some friends out there.

regards
Leo

Hi Leo and welcome .  Waterford eh, there are some friends of ours in Riyadh from Waterford - small world isn't it - wouldn't it be funny if you knew them ?  I will PM you some information.  Wishing you all the best with your paperwork and progress to life in Saudi.  You are doing the right thing of getting a network going prior to the move , you will need friends here or it will be a lonely and thankless existence.  Make the most of everything and keep an open mind; there are far worst places you could be.

thanks Folks,
the more information i have the better, and i know from my research, so far its not the entertainment capital of the world, i was also told that not to try to compare it to Vagus, dont worry im joking.

well i know im in for a quite first few months till i get my family over so the more i can talk to the better.

what worries me is were i am going is Yanbu and i cant seem to find anyone who has or is there, is is sounding like a very quite place,

Oopps here i am talking sence in the no topic topic. i might get kicked off if dont watch myself sorry. lol.

so lets see a No topic topic.

well Cars i see the car prices are good over there i was looking at the BMW M5 i am massive fan and have one here and hate to say good buy to it, i could be tempted to start looking at them when i get there any ideas?

For once I would like to see adults who have a vehicle encounter, pull to the side of the road and have a hand thrashing and talking/shouting session instead of the middle of the road giving a flying u-know-what about the rest of us trying to go somewhere.

Driving sure is a pain here in Saudi Arabia...

miahannaleo wrote:

what worries me is were i am going is Yanbu and i cant seem to find anyone who has or is there, is is sounding like a very quite place,

Hi there, welcome to the blog
If you do a search on the Expat.com for Yanbu quite a few links come up so that's a start.
Some interesting info on Yanbu on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanbu not sure if you have checked that out yet?
Maybe you should create a new post on Saudi Arabia forum for anyone living and working in Yanbu and see what comes up? You can also do a new post on all the Saudi forums asking if anyone has any friends or know of any Western Expats living in Yanbu and see what comes up? 
It's a start, hope this helps   Failing that, get a job in Riyadh, there are lots of us here

miahannaleo wrote:

what worries me is were i am going is Yanbu and i cant seem to find anyone who has or is there, is is sounding like a very quite place,

Hey Leo, Yanbu sounds fantastic - you will have lots of visitors from new Expat friends just for the diving alone - check out this info page:  http://www.alnokhba.com/saudi-arabia/ci … -yanbu.htm

Hi there, welcome to the blog smile
If you do a search on the Expat.com for Yanbu quite a few links come up so that's a start.
Some interesting info on Yanbu on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanbu not sure if you have checked that out yet?
Maybe you should create a new post on Saudi Arabia forum for anyone living and working in Yanbu and see what comes up? You can also do a new post on all the Saudi forums asking if anyone has any friends or know of any Western Expats living in Yanbu and see what comes up?
It's a start, hope this helps smile  Failing that, get a job in Riyadh, there are lots of us here

Well i will start with the Yanbu job first it took long enough to get this one, lol.

i have done quite alot of research on Yanbu and read all the above topic they are great, thank you.

i am excited and nervious about all this but i know it will be a challange and i  love that.

so i take it Riyadh is the  entertainment capital, parties all the time, lol.

Oh no.. riyadh is in the middle of the desert.. the place where everything happens is on the coasts.. Yanbu is a bit drier because its a smaller town.. jeddah has a huge no. of expats.. and yes there are a lot more places to see there. then khobar/Dammam.. at least we here on the east coast can goa nd visit Bahrain as much as we want..

Whereabouts is Yanbu?  I dont want to search I am too lazy, so please tell.

its in Saudi

sorry im a bit of a smart arse '

this should help well i said the same thing when i wass told where the job offer was
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanbu

350 km North Of Jeddah ....

Glad I went to Bahrain last week.  Not a good idea this week. My company even instructed our employees not to go there and if you live there and commute to KSA to stay at home and work from there.  I'd do most anything for a real beer these days but the fake stuff is fine for now.

@cic: you are right about that.. things are not too good there right now. A couple of expats I do know are planning on flying out soon just in case things go bad.

sorry for being stubid, but whats wrong in Bahrain, righ now, i have a frend working there?

miahannaleo wrote:

sorry for being stubid, but whats wrong in Bahrain, righ now, i have a frend working there?

Just a bit of civil unrest.  Killed 2 peeps in the last two days.  Not on the scale of Egypt, but the Sunni's and Shiites (sp?) have been protesting for several years against each other, but this time they are protesting against the government together.  Or at least that is what I understand.

so not good then, wow how do you think it will affect Saudi i know we are not to really get into politics here, but worried if this could kick off there just as i am about to move out. just my luck

miahannaleo wrote:

so not good then, wow how do you think it will affect Saudi i know we are not to really get into politics here, but worried if this could kick off there just as i am about to move out. just my luck

Not into politics either (at least not here), but think things ok in KSA.  At least my company says so.

well same here,

so back to the No topic Topic then, how long you been there CivEngr

miahannaleo wrote:

well same here,

so back to the No topic Topic then, how long you been there CivEngr

28 years.  And you?  What do you do and what brings you to paradise?  I know, the abayas turn you on.  It's all in the eyes.

well im a Project Manager and int he final process of moving to Yanbu to start work as a Project Manager for a Company called Pretech. have my letter of offer and now am waiting on the visit visa that they are getting for me, but they are have an issue with it.
they have told me the following invitation letter was submitted but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs change them roles for invitation letter as before we got valid invitation for 180 days and several trip to travel outside the kingdom, but they have now only approved for 15 days and just 1 trip.

they they are now going back to the Foreign affairs to sort it out.
i am due to be flying out there in first week of March.

@Civ: 28 yrs in Saudi?? damn!! Old timer, you have been here for ages.

@mia: Yanbu is a small place.. not much to do, unless you get yourself a 4X$ and go dune bashing every weekend..

well your right 28 years,

Yes i Know that Yanbu is very quite but, i cant pick the location im glad to get the job offer to start with.

well its all part of master plan,

start in Saudi and with in 4-5 years i want to get working Qatar,

so i dont mind it being too quite

RedGoblin wrote:

@Civ: 28 yrs in Saudi?? damn!! Old timer, you have been here for ages.

@mia: Yanbu is a small place.. not much to do, unless you get yourself a 4X$ and go dune bashing every weekend..

My bad.  28 year Civil Engineer.  Only 7 months, nearly 8 months here in paradise.

ok that makes more sense i was going to say you should be a resident by now.

well i take it you are enjoying,

ok a Topic started , everyone asks about visa, compound, living Etc, but i have not seen any topics on the work culture, sorry if is already here, but my questions are as follows,

i amused to the job were i expect results perfect every time and in a timly manner. im told nto to expect the same here.

also im told its quite slow to get results here. what is the average work load like, now i understand this will differ across the board.

the stantard of work what is it like, skill set.

i hope this is a vaild question and if you feel its not for this particular topic advise and i will move.

miahannaleo wrote:

ok that makes more sense i was going to say you should be a resident by now.

well i take it you are enjoying,

ok a Topic started , everyone asks about visa, compound, living Etc, but i have not seen any topics on the work culture, sorry if is already here, but my questions are as follows,

i amused to the job were i expect results perfect every time and in a timly manner. im told nto to expect the same here.

also im told its quite slow to get results here. what is the average work load like, now i understand this will differ across the board.

the stantard of work what is it like, skill set.

i hope this is a vaild question and if you feel its not for this particular topic advise and i will move.

If you are familiar with the term "island time", that applies here.  REAL SLOW.  Work varies.  Some peeps 5 days/wk, other (like me) 6 days/wk.  Hours vary.  Depends on situation, could be 40 or up to 70-80hrs/wk.  The worst thing here is traffic, just plain dangerous.

Check with your employer and fellow employees.  Working more hours here is really not too much of a problem as freetime can be what you make of it, real boring or party time if you make the right connections (can't help you on the party time, sorry, haven't been here long enough).

yes i know of that saying, so i should learn to relax and go with the flow,

not to expect alot, well as for the working hours i dont mid to much in the begining the hours, until i get my family over,
but im told that its 5 day week some times 6 so that ok too.

There is only the Saudi way of doing things. you can only push people so much. Beyond that you sit and hope that they will respond.

@Mia - U will learn patience and tolerance. If I tell U I have important equipment on order since August 2010...trust me its true. I ordered stationery for my office 6th December - it arrived last week...from Jarier bookstore and stationery ..UHMMM! the stationery store is next door to my workplace. But never the less it took 10 weeks to pack and deliver to me.

Wow i know it was bad that is crazy, ok well i think i will need to start on the Pink tablets agian, i have very short patience, so this wil be fun for me, well im not going over to make any changes, i will just go with the flow i guess,

it is going to be fun bring it on, so the companies i used to think where pure crap in the Uk and Ireland will look good after this.

@leo - I like your reference to "go with the flow", now you know why I picked that as my blog name for Saudi!!!  Another tip is do not come over here and try and apply performance targets that you would at home - you will get yourself into very hot water!  Also, do not rebuke in public and be very careful how you 'instruct' people here.  There are ways and there are ways to guide and develop people (irrespective of their positions).  You will need lots of the pink tablets, but we also find the blue, green and yellow ones as well go some way

i just noticed your name, snap lol well i can see i will need to be very dipolmatic and clever in how i gain ground here, gentle gentle catch the monkey as we say here,

so can i ask are you there working or are you a full time wife to the gods lol,

if so how long did it take on average to get family over form the time you first landed,

im hearing now it could take at lease a 6 months to a year to get work vise and then family visa sort.

Sparrow wrote:

@Mia - U will learn patience and tolerance. If I tell U I have important equipment on order since August 2010...trust me its true. I ordered stationery for my office 6th December - it arrived last week...from Jarier bookstore and stationery ..UHMMM! the stationery store is next door to my workplace. But never the less it took 10 weeks to pack and deliver to me.

You should have ordered it from Amazon UK/US, it would've reached you in 5 days... Inshallah!!

@mia - it took my husband 3 weeks to get us over here, it all depends on how organised your company is, and our London visa agents were super-efficient! He came out here in the first week of July and I flew out with the kids on August 1st.

As for working hours, for my OH it's a 5 day week, 8 till 4, sometimes till 6pm (he's in banking).
Just be patient, keep popping those pills and keep badgering people until things get done

thanks Zara,

well its so funny i am getting so many different stories but all are helpful, and i was given a name of a agent by gowiththeflow, (Maxin) so i will contact them next week and get their assitance i think,

i have to say this forum is great and just tonight i have found a guy living in Yanbu and who is in the same compound i will be going to ,and what even better the manager of the compound is Irish like me so already i am building a good network, he has given me so much advise which has been brilliant,

so to all out there thank you and please all take a bow and give a pat on the back lol.

miahannaleo wrote:

thanks Zara,

well its so funny i am getting so many different stories but all are helpful, and i was given a name of a agent by gowiththeflow, (Maxin) so i will contact them next week and get their assitance i think,

i have to say this forum is great and just tonight i have found a guy living in Yanbu and who is in the same compound i will be going to ,and what even better the manager of the compound is Irish like me so already i am building a good network, he has given me so much advise which has been brilliant,

so to all out there thank you and please all take a bow and give a pat on the back lol.

Getting a Visa depends on a lot of things, both in saudi and in our home country, we need to get a good documentation, somebody who can do fast for us within the KSA office, KSA foreign affiars ministry and finally how much influence the company has within the Ministry to convince/influence that visa is essential.  So u keep hearing different stories

Glad that u r building up a network, welocme to KSA and the blog from my side

Some tips that can be shared on the work culture.
1) Avoid Litigations: you can only win battles in the commercial world you will never win wars so avoid litigation if at all possible. This is important everywhere, but becomes more important here.
2) Meetings are generally not private until after a relationship of trust has been developed. This means you may expect frequent interruptions. Others may wander into the room and start a different discussion. You may join in, but do not try to bring the topic back to the original discussion until the new person leaves. Have patience.
3)Decisions are made slowly. Do not try to rush the process as Most decisions require several layers of approval. It takes several visits and follow ups to accomplish simple tasks.
4) If any benefits or special arrangements have been verbally agreed upon, those should spell them out in the contract before siging. Even if one’s supervisor is a saint, final decisions will probably be made by an inaccessible accountant or lawyer and only the words in the contract will matter.
5) Being a PM, if you r asked to do performance assessment of ur team which contains a mix of locals and Expatriates, then it will be one of the challenges u could be having in ur job. Do not do it in an usual way how u do back home as the culture and contexts can be entirely different. Best thing to do is leave this job to some body else who knows the locals better and understands them culturally.

Working in Saudi is a slightly surreal experience for many as the way of life on a compound and out on the Saudi streets and offices are very, very different to what most people have been used.  If one go with a completely open mind and a strong resolve, you will get all you can from the experience. Cheers.