The Comforts of Crazy Busy

When I arrived in Dubai last year to start my new job, the markets in the Gulf region and Dubai in particular, were nothing short of frenzied. My second project here was the concept design of a 5-tower residential project in Abu Dhabi. The first of the 5 towers to be launched, about 350 apartments, sold out in less than 30 minutes! That's more than 1 apartment per minute ... if ya took too long to fill out the paperwork, you were SOL!

Incidentally, that project is currently inching along towards construction and was recently plunked back in my lap after being breifly passed over to another colleague. Working on the concept design was a new and interesting experience for me but construction documents is where it's at! I'm excited to have it back in my portfolio cuz now we're getting down to the nuts and bolts of how to build the thing!

There is another, less benevolent reason that I am happy to have that project back.

Our office has thus far riden the econonic low-tide fairly steadily. Things were a bit hairy back in November though: in the 10 days I was away in Canada, the economic climate of Dubai did a complete about-face! I left behind an extremely hectic workload and returned to find my bread-and-butter projects were haulted. Fortunately, I had other projects to fill the void (I was a teensy bit relieved to have some breathing room!) But others in the office were not so lucky and there were some sad good byes just before Christmas.

December was a slow month, partially because of the economy, partially because there was an abundance of public and religious holidays with a few extra days tacked on to mourn the death of the Ruler of Umm Al Qwain. But come January, people returned from vacation, work resumed, things were settling back into a routine.

For a good portion of last year, we had one gargantuan sized project that's been chugging along towards construction. Ten towers on a single site, a big job that has consumed the lives of much of the office here and several of our sister offices around the world (apparently I was nominated to work on that one; I was flattered but I resisted. I don't yet have even one tower under my belt, let alone ten!) Throughout all the hoo-hah that is a way of life in Dubai, this project has been a steadying force, the ballast that keeps the ship sailing upright.

Unfortunately, the ship has hit rough waters. Yesterday morning the rumour mill was on fire and a short time later, it was announced that the gargantuan project has fallen victim of the credit crunch like so many others. This is very bad news. Where management has thus far taken a "wait and see" stance and lay-offs have been minimal, this is a fatal blow.

And the timing was not great either! Last night was our company annual (Christmas) dinner to celebrate a highly successful 2008 for NORR. We were hosted at the extravagant Atlantis Hotel, which is itself, a NORR masterpiece that was completed this fall and kicked off the festive season with a Grand Opening that was over the top, even by Dubai standards! However, our event last night was a subdued one (except for one rather entertaining solo dance performance by an over-indulgant Michael Jackson wanna-be) and was inauspiciously dubbed, "the last supper". No official word yet as to who will have the sorry task of cleaning off their desk come Sunday morning.

As a footnote to yesterday's bummer revelation, an email came through late in the day saying that another, smaller project also went south. My co-workers have not seen that one yet so if there were long faces yesterday, there will surely be more long faces and probably some tears next week.

I don't believe I am on the chopping block just yet, knock on wood! As I said, I am happy to be back on the 5-tower project (and, more importantly, they are happy to have me ... I think?!) not just because the experience looks good on my CV or that it is exactly the kind of work I like to do or even that I have an affinity for it being my first real project in Dubai. While most of my co-workers are mulling about, pondering the uncertainty of their futures, I have deadlines, emails, conference calls, meetings and stacks of drawings to be reviewed! If I was running my ass off, crazy busy during the height of the economic frenzy, I am even more crazy busy now that there is a "slow down" ... and there is a certain level of comfort in that.