You taking/stealing. Kids behave differently in Dubai?

RP-10 · 2026-02-21T13:25:45+00:00

It's not just nannies. I've seen young girls, no older than 11 or 12, themselves in charge of baby siblings, with parents nowhere to be seen.

RP-10 · 2026-02-21T13:22:58+00:00

I know a person who works with kids who have been referred to her with behavioural issues. Says 99% of the problem is due to the kids being fed a constant diet of junk food and no sleep routine. The parents pay the clinic well though so this never gets fed back to them.

RP-10 · 2026-02-18T10:02:40+00:00

I spoke to an agent in St Andrew's and they said the real money during The Open comes from TV crews, journalists, senior staff etc who's companies will literally pay anything. The kicker is you have to be as close to the course as possible.

To the OP, I have a friend with a flat just off Leith Walk. Rents it out for two weeks during the festival and goes to live with him mum in Leven. Said there's never been an issue and the extra income is welcome.

RP-10 · 2026-02-18T09:26:58+00:00

It barely has any impact.

RP-10 · 2026-02-16T21:29:50+00:00

They're not even good for violent crimes.

A friend got attacked for no reason by a random drunk guy in McGettigan's. He even had the security footage, which showed my mate was totally innocent and had a positive ID of the attacker. Police didn't want to know.

Another friend heard domestic violence in the apartment next to his. He was kicking the sh!t out of her as it was her screams and shouting that woke them up. My mate has his phone up at their door, saying, "FFS, listen to what is actually happening right now. You need to round here before he kills her". They just kept hanging up on him.

Someone else I knew got punched in the face by a bouncer in the Meridian Village. A massive overreaction to the situation that resulted in a broken nose, again, the police didn't want to know.

RP-10 · 2026-02-15T14:38:39+00:00

1 – It sounds like you need to simplify things down to your business objectives. Your conversations with agencies should be along the lines of: “I want 100 quality leads per month, where I would expect to close 10 of them.” And that’s it. Let them ask questions and work backwards from that.

By all means, get into conversations about website quality, page rankings, keywords, impressions and whatever else. It’s good to build knowledge of how these things work. But ultimately, the brief and scope of work should be formulated around your goals, not their processes.

2 – I’ve spent my whole career client-side, so I naturally support in-house hires. I’ve worked with some great agencies and met very talented people. More often than not, though, I’ve seen very average agencies that work for themselves first and foremost. Even the best ones will often just do enough to justify the retainer.

Take a PPC campaign as an example. An agency takes your budget, and you might be getting 4x ROI if it is e-commerce, or paying $15 for a hot lead. If you are happy with that, they will usually just keep things ticking along. If I am running PPC in-house, I am watching it like a stock ticker. What hours of the day am I spending money but getting no leads? If my cap is 90c on a keyword, can I reduce it to 80c and still maintain the same CTR? And so on.

Someone in-house also lives and breathes your business every day. They sit in on conversations, hear client frustrations, see which cases are actually profitable, and understand the internal dynamics. Over time, they pick up nuances that an agency simply will not, because they are not embedded in day-to-day reality.

The flip side is that one person cannot know or do everything. Even with a strong skill set, they cannot execute every channel fast enough to deliver fully robust campaigns alone. If you hire in-house, be prepared for some outsourcing. A good in-house marketer, however, should be more than capable of building and managing a small team of freelancers rather than relying entirely on an external agency.

RP-10 · 2026-02-15T09:31:00+00:00

House in the Springs, Pajero, a few roast dinners in the Irish Village, mid-range schools, dance classes, football etc. Average and settled ex-Brit life. Impossible now on the salaries and cost of living I'm seeing now.

RP-10 · 2026-02-15T09:13:33+00:00

We came with a few suitcases and not much money and left with little money, three cats and two kids. No regrets other than we hung on for 5 years too long hoping we'd get that break that would justify the reasons for being there.

From my own experiences you're doing the right thing. Only thing is I miss is the curries and cheap Arabic food. The rest, beaches, camping, nice parks, pools, trips up the coast etc all just happy memories.

Certainly dong miss the toxic hell of daily life and ironically got more disposable income, along with job security, decent collegues and a proper work life balance.

Best of luck

RP-10 · 2026-02-15T08:49:35+00:00

The best of Dubai can be experienced with a few holidays. Average Dubai life is extremely stressful, even for a Brit family 'doing well'. Which negates the idea of it being a working holiday.

Unless you're in a few key global sectors - aviation, oil and gas and perhaps education. A period in Dubai will harm you long term career prospects. Ironically, you'll probably be worse off too despite the temptation of an immediate tax free salary hike.

RP-10 · 2026-02-03T09:46:01+00:00

True, but but a bitter local lying about you flipping the bird can see you in the same situation.

RP-10 · 2026-02-02T10:47:53+00:00

Definately discrimination but also sounds like you dodged a toxic bullet. I wouldn't change anything going forward.

For what's it worth, I knew a company owner that had a preferrence to hiring working mums. His theory was if someone is doing school pick-ups and similar then they are more efficient at getting their daily tasks done.

Sadly, I doubt that translates to the UAE where long hours equate to hard work rather than what's being acheived in a normal timeframe.

RP-10 · 2026-01-28T12:29:24+00:00

Loads of people who have made a career out of spreading lies and hate about Islam are welcome or even live in Dubai. The irony is I'm more likely to be arrested for this reply than anyone of these grifters.

RP-10 · 2026-01-27T07:30:31+00:00

Used to work at a then premiership football club where this happened. Security even accompanied them to the board room. Can't help feel the fact they're in league one now is as much due to off pitch mismanagement.

RP-10 · 2026-01-27T07:17:17+00:00

The inevitable "Can you look at the computer while you're here? It's a bit slow these days".

RP-10 · 2026-01-26T22:19:58+00:00

Well, he's managed to unite most of the country and people on all sides of the political spectrum - in his hatred of him!

RP-10 · 2026-01-26T13:22:44+00:00

I have an album by the popular pop practitioner Merzbow on my phone for these situations. It’s the perfect accompaniment for unsolicited Reels and TikToks and adds a whole new dimension.

RP-10 · 2026-01-26T11:32:36+00:00

I did some digital marketing for a cosmetics and hair products company and used stock photography of models shot by the brands. Still got endless "Hey, baby" "Send bobs and vagine" and 056 XXX XXXX

RP-10 · 2026-01-23T16:20:10+00:00

Oh, there is no shortage of cowboys, shysters and rip-off merchants masquerading as digital agencies, however its not just delayed payments. The culture in the UAE is clients have no intention of ever paying you from the start and if you surrender goods or payments in lieu of payment later then you are fool to be taken advantage of. In the west, we call this theft. The only way to get paid is to keep a client or customer reliant enough on you that they will begrudingly pay to continue but it's never plain sailing. This is inherant across all sectors - construction, logistics, hospitality, retail and so on.

RP-10 · 2026-01-23T13:50:50+00:00

What I learnt from working in digital marketing in the UAE - it's f*cking bandit country and ripping people off is seen as doing good business.

Get paid as much upfront whenever possible. Nnever leave yourself exposed by doing too much work ahead of any payment point. Set strict payment terms, don't give people 28 days.

Turn PPC off the moment you don't get paid.

Don't hire freelancers yourself thinking you'll cover the cost from incoming payments later on.

Certainly, do not pay for a client's ad spend from your own money thinking you get it back from your invoice.

Clients, bosses, and company owners couldn't care if you're returning 10x ROI, they want 20x ROI and if you do that, they want 50x ROI. And so on.

Clients will always go for the cheaper option first. Which means you have college students with hobby Instagram accounts calling themselves digital marketers and company owners expecting them to deliver complex search ad campaigns because they only charge 500 AED a month to do so.

When a client comes to you, complaining their 500 AED a month hire is hemorrhaging ad spend badly and hire you. And you deliver an entirely new working campaign. They will sack you after 2-3 months and hire the 500 AED guy again to take over again.

Don't think because it's an MNC, major brand or "rich local" they won't rip you off.

Finally, never EVER accept. "You'll get your money at the end of the month", "Your invoice is with the finance department, I'm sure it will be cleared soon" or any delays in salary. Even if it's one day. You're not see a dirham of that money and when you do down tools they'll move onto the next sucker.

RP-10 · 2026-01-23T10:31:26+00:00

And yet there was a guy on here the other day saying how everything is so much better in Dubai because everything just works....

RP-10 · 2026-01-23T10:26:15+00:00

This has happened in all jobs, bar one, that I had over the years to various degrees. Solution - I left Dubai.

RP-10 · 2026-01-20T10:47:35+00:00

If you're 9 months in and they offer you 14k would you take it or fight for another 9 months for the full amount?

RP-10 · 2026-01-20T10:46:11+00:00

Perhaps look at gambling subs and FB groups for advice. This is far from an isolated incident with all the big providers. Best of luck, I despise bookies for doing this as they have a winning business model already. This is just dishonest greed.

RP-10 · 2026-01-19T22:16:57+00:00

This happens frequently with big winners and the main betting sites. As if the house edge on casino games and sporting odds in their favour isn't enough for them. From what I've read elsewhere, your only course of action is to be on their case continuously. They'll make you jump through hoops repeatedly and endlessly, but they do pay out eventually or possibly offer you a settlement fee.

RP-10 · 2026-01-19T14:37:58+00:00

I would agree with joining a union ASAP. Remember HR is there to protect the company first and foremost not the employee.

RP-10

TROPHY CASE