I turned 50 on Friday. Don’t worry, it’s no biggie. Ever since I learnt that Brad Pitt is, and always will be, a year older than me, I’ve been quite upbeat about getting older. But it is a milestone nevertheless and I was remembering that I got my first job, a short-lived – four days – stint as a barman at the Golden Lion in Soho, 32 years ago. Since then I have done everything from demolish houses, move dead bodies at a hospital morgue, crew yachts and work in a quite large retail bank. Oh, and there was a disastrous spell in the British Army.
My first proper job was as a glorified office boy in the publicity department at Quartet, the publishing house owned by the Palestinian entrepreneur and former banker Naim Attallah. Quartet's Goodge Street offices were stuffed to the gills with what the media would today call "posh totty". They included Nigella Lawson, Rebecca Fraser, Candida Crew, Liza Campbell, Zelfa Hourani, a Bonham-Carter here and a Heathcoat-Amory there. One occasionally spotted a tweedy and bespectacled man cloistered in a small office, but by and large this was brainy babe-central, just as Naim liked it.
My boss was a formidable woman called Penny Grant and it didn’t take me long to figure out that women were better organisers than men, a theory that gathered greater credo one year later when I found myself toiling at a different coalface, this time as a seasonal sales assistant in the Christmas cards department at Harrods, where I had another super-focused female boss. I can’t remember her name but she fired me for sleeping in the stockroom after lunch, so well done her.
I returned to Lebanon in 1992 and once again found myself in the company of women, this time at the American University of Beirut, where the female-male ratio in my department was about 10 to one. All were visibly more able and dedicated than the sprinkling of us men. Since then I have had the pleasure of working with women in magazines, newspapers, ad agencies, PR companies and regional multinationals and they have, with a few unfortunate exceptions, sustained my undying admiration.
It may sound ironic but the Middle East – Lebanon in particular – is a fertile ground for the woman executive. Sure, it’s drenched in misogyny and some of the “gestures of affection” I have seen in the workplace would have abruptly ended many a career in Europe or the US. But Lebanon’s liberal milieu and the high supply of highly educated women has meant they have excelled in corporate middle management, a role requiring a degree of focus sadly lacking in the ego-driven and testosterone-fuelled Lebanese Alpha male.
We need to see much more in senior management and the boardroom as well as parliament and government. Lebanon might actually achieve something if women were running the show.
So what else have I learnt in over two decades of gainful employment in this mad country? Well, for a start, graduates are wildly overrated. Yes we will always need our professionals – doctors, engineers, lawyers and the like, but there is a school of thought in the West that posits that the pro-forma degree is dying due to an oversupply. This is evident in Lebanon, where there are far too many bogus universities pandering to parents anxious that their kids go to college; where one might encounter a receptionist with an MBA and where a fresh engineering graduate is lucky to take home $750 a month.
Apprenticeships and vocational training are the way forward. They would give school leavers tangible skill sets and allow them to productively fill positions that are currently occupied by disgruntled media studies graduates.
Finally, there are too many “deadwood” employees. The Lebanese should learn to fire more people. The workforce would be better off for it when people realise they are there to be productive and not just collect a salary.
And women are the ones to do it. I should know.
Michael Karam is a freelance writer who lives between Beirut and Brighton.
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What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
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- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
- Understanding of marketing objectives and audience engagement.
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more from Janine di Giovanni
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
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Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week
The biog
Name: Timothy Husband
Nationality: New Zealand
Education: Degree in zoology at The University of Sydney
Favourite book: Lemurs of Madagascar by Russell A Mittermeier
Favourite music: Billy Joel
Weekends and holidays: Talking about animals or visiting his farm in Australia
Dolittle
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen
One-and-a-half out of five stars
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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Brief scores:
Barcelona 3
Pique 38', Messi 51 (pen), Suarez 82'
Rayo Vallecano 1
De Tomas Gomez 24'
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
The advice provided in our columns does not constitute legal advice and is provided for information only. Readers are encouraged to seek independent legal advice.
More on animal trafficking
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
The specs: 2019 Cadillac XT4
Price, base: Dh145,000
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged in-line four-cylinder engine
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 237hp @ 5,000rpm
Torque: 350Nm @ 1,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 8.7L / 100km
Results
Stage 7:
1. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal - 3:18:29
2. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - same time
3. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious
4. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep
5. Cees Bol (NED) Team DSM
General Classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 24:00:28
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:35
3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:02
4. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:42
5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
Saturday's results
Women's third round
- 14-Garbine Muguruza Blanco (Spain) beat Sorana Cirstea (Romania) 6-2, 6-2
- Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-1
- 7-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Polona Hercog (Slovenia) 6-4. 6-0
- Coco Vandeweghe (USA) beat Alison Riske (USA) 6-2, 6-4
- 9-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) beat 19-Timea Bacsinszky (Switzerland) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
- Petra Martic (Croatia) beat Zarina Diyas (Kazakhstan) 7-6, 6-1
- Magdalena Rybarikova (Slovakia) beat Lesia Tsurenko (Ukraine) 6-2, 6-1
- 7-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) beat Polona Hercog (Slovenia) 6-4, 6-0
Men's third round
- 13-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Dudi Sela (Israel) 6-1, 6-1 -- retired
- Sam Queery (United States) beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
- 6-Milos Raonic (Canada) beat 25-Albert Ramos (Spain) 7-6, 6-4, 7-5
- 10-Alexander Zverev (Germany) beat Sebastian Ofner (Austria) 6-4, 6-4, 6-2
- 11-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat David Ferrer (Spain) 6-3, 6-4, 6-3
- Adrian Mannarino (France) beat 15-Gael Monfils (France) 7-6, 4-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
