Qatarisation

Qatarisation is an official government policy designed to increase the number of Qataris in all joint venture organisations and government departments. Officially, 20% of a company’s employees should be Qatari. This jumps to 50% in the public sector.

Here’s the thing, the country gets very nervous about having so many foreigners in the workforce. To offset this, and keep the local population happy, Qatarisation actively favours and fast tracks Qataris when it comes to jobs and careers. Its long-term goal is to ensure that all major companies and organisations are run by Qataris.

In theory, this makes perfect sense. In reality, not so much…

The haste with which Qataris are promoted (especially in the private sector), means you’ll often encounter situations where someone with no practical expertise is leap-frogged to managerial level almost immediately. This has a knock-on effect, and means the next local to graduate also expects to go straight into a managerial role as well.

What you end up with is a huddle of local directors and managers, completely out of their depth, being propped up by western consultants. These expats have been brought over to ensure the whole enterprise doesn’t keel over in a flurry of long corporate lunches and InShaAllahs.

All well and good, except the people behind the scenes soon realise they’re stuck doing the legwork with no prospect of a promotion or even a pay rise.

The high turnover rates associated with expats (2–3 years max) can be at least partly attributed to this lack of career progression. There’s also the work related issues that come about when managers with no experience are set loose to terrorise day-to-day operations.

Moving on… The relatively high wages and short working hours within government organisations make them a preferred destination for many Qataris. But for those with ambition and drive, the private sector is the quickest way to climb the corporate ladder. The lack of competition from other nationals and the Qatari quotas means a halfway-competent local will find themselves promoted at speed.

You can find more tips on living and working in Qatar in my book — God Willing: How to survive expat life in Qatar.