It's raining. Do you really want staff to be there at sharp 8?

Employee safety is an employer's obligation, and if that means allowing workers to arrive late on certain bad-weather days, so be it.

Two weeks to go for New Year's Eve 2020, we certainly shouldn't be asking that question. At least not here in the UAE, a country that is at the cutting edge of technology and is quick in adopting and embracing positive global trends. Internet speed and connectivity in the UAE are second to none, and accessibility is not an issue for the remote worker. A good percentage of the work that we accomplish at the office can be done remotely. Checking and responding to e-mails, collaborative meetings - even strategy-creation - can be done from a home-office.
Unless, of course, part of your job mandates your physical presence at your workplace - a pilot, for instance, (still) cannot work from home and will need to be in the cockpit of the aircraft s/he is supposed to fly. Same is the case with doctors and surgeons although tech is fast taking care of that with remote consultation and surgeries becoming far more common now. But for the vast majority, working remotely is a very feasible possibility. So why don't we work from home (or the beach for that matter) as much as we'd like to?
Blame our traditional mindset. For some of us, unless we see a person sitting on her/his desk all day long, it's hard to digest that they've put in an honest day's work. But if we expect staff to be connected in an always-on environment even after the usual 9-to-5 to cater to the demands of the modern workplace, why not 'extend' that privilege to office hours? Happy employees, in any case, are far more productive than grumpy ones. The recent wet weather has again put employee safety in the spotlight.
An employer is obliged to ensure employee safety, and if that means allowing workers to arrive late or work remotely on certain bad-weather days, so be it. This is a guidance by the UAE's Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation, which issued a circular (No. 8) last year on the subject. The weatherman has spoken: the UAE is going to witness intermittent rainfall, a drop in temperatures, cloud cover, and low pressure over the next four days. The HR ministry encourages flexible working hours during unstable weather conditions. Do we really want employees braving the traffic to punch in at 8am or can we be a little flexible for their safety and our productivity?