Day 49, Friday - Muscat

This morning, Hannan made the crepe-like things for breakfast again, as it is a Friday tradition, and I asked her to show me how she makes them. When I get home, I really need to see if I can find this ghee stuff, which my mother tells me is clarified butter.

Anyways, today was also my visit to Nawras! Nawras is a telecommunications company which has grown to serve 2.5 million people in under six years. Manal Al-Kiyumi wanted to take me to see the place where she works because she is very proud of her company, which they say is more like a family. Currently, Manal is in charge of internal motivation and incentive programs as well as company functions, but she is being promoted soon.

Because it is Friday (and I am leaving tomorrow) the only part of the company which is open is their 24/7 call center. And let me tell you, it seems like a really fun place to work. The work space is really open and people can mingle and chat.

The manager’s desks are right in with the employees whom they are over-seeing. Here is the call center’s manager’s desk:

Manal is very proud of the fact that men and women are mixed and that everyone is so happy to be there. I believe she said that about 70% of the employees who started with the company in the beginning are still there. They have a very low turn-over rate and lots of people who move on want to come back. She also noted that they are all rather young, the people in the call center are somewhere between the ages of 18 and 30 I believe.

So just in case you thought all Middle Eastern companies were strict and keep men and women separate, they aren’t.

Of course, after the company tour it was time for my ATV ride over the sand dunes. This is best described through pictures:

And that is how I spent my last evening in Oman.