Will Dubai bring back its four-day summer work week in 2026?
Flexible hours boost productivity and happiness as heat forces rethink of work
Every summer, as temperatures climb past 40°C, Dubai faces a question that most cities never have to ask: should people really be working five full days a week in this heat?
For the past two summers, the Dubai Government Human Resources Department (DGHR) has answered that question by introducing flexible working hours for government employees.
With July approaching and no official word yet for 2026, the question is whether it will happen again.
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How Dubai introduced reduced summer working hours
In summer 2024, DGHR launched a pilot called Our Summer is Flexible across 15 government entities. Workers were divided into two groups: one compressed their hours into four days and took Fridays off; the other worked shorter days across the week.
The results from the pilot phase were positive:
The pilot recorded an 87 per cent improvement in employees' ability to complete tasks on time
A 96 per cent improvement in customer service with zero complaints filed
A 98 per cent improvement in employee happiness.
These were assessed under the Dubai Government Excellence Programme.
In 2025, DGHR expanded the scheme, rebranded Our Flexible Summer, to all Dubai government entities, running from July 1 to September 12.
It was tied to the UAE's Year of Community and the goal of supporting families during school holidays. The two-group model was kept - one cohort worked eight-hour days Monday to Thursday with Fridays off, the other worked seven-hour days Monday to Thursday and a half-day on Friday.
The UAE's midday work ban
The flexible hours scheme sits alongside a separate layer of summer protection that has been in place for outdoor workers for over two decades.
The UAE's annual midday work ban, now in its 22nd consecutive year, prohibits outdoor work under direct sunlight between 12:30pm and 3pm, from June 15 to September 15.
Enforced by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE), the ban covers construction sites, infrastructure projects, and open-air labour during the hottest part of the day, when temperatures can reach 45–50°C. Employers who violate it face fines of Dh5,000 per worker, up to a maximum of Dh50,000.
Will Dubai's flexible summer work scheme return in 2026?
Pilot in 2024. Full rollout in 2025. The trajectory of flexible work in the UAE more broadly points in one direction.
The federal government moved to a four-and-a-half-day week in January 2022. Sharjah made a full four-day week permanent. A government white paper published in early 2025 made the case for remote and hybrid working models across the UAE.
The Our Flexible Summer initiative is also tied to the Dubai Quality of Life Strategy 2033. And 2026 is the UAE's Year of the Family, government employees with children will be expecting the same arrangements they have had for the past two summers.
Whether the programme returns in 2026 for Dubai government employees remains to be seen, but its expansion over the past two years suggests that flexible working arrangements continue to play an important role in Dubai's approach to employee wellbeing and quality of life.
