Professionalism in Jordan

Jordan went through a lot of changes for the last several years.. I remember the time when the longest destination took us maximum 15 minutes by car and when 7 cars at a traffic light was considered traffic.. I remember when the tallest building was 3amaret il Burj and when streets were almost empty at 11:00 pm.. I remember when 12 Jds would fill my 1.6 cc VW car and people with salaries ranging between 1200- 1500 Jds were considered lucky… 

Everything has changed since..  buildings are competing to gain the title of the highest in Jordan, a person should estimate a 30 to 35 minutes time to reach his destination, and stopping at the traffic light for less than 4 times is considered a blessing..   And what about the salaries? I guess the saying that says the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer is true.. I am hearing salaries with 4 ( not less than 5000 Jds) and five digits!! Why? What are they doing? Byikhtir3o il tharra? 

But did this evolution and these crazy salaries increase the professionalism in Jordan? Not at all.. I guess on the contrary it showed our flows.. it showed that we are not only not ready financially but also professionally..

My line of work made me work with a lot of the new local and regional well-known “professional” companies and let me tell you they are not where near that..

I don’t see what’s wrong with calling back the people who left you a message, are you that busy to call back or reply to an email? It does not degrade you but if you feel that is does, hire yourself a secretary who would do that for you.. I remember when I used to work in Dubai, I used to call people on their landline and they would call back saying they got a missed call on their caller ID, and I am talking about high level people..

We once contacted a company for sponsorship and they were very excited to the extend that they wanted to become partners, but after our meeting I kept calling and calling and they kept ignoring me as if 3am bash7ad minhom and I finally reached her I told her “sho inseetoona” can you imagine what her reply was? “I was hoping into inseetoona”…. What the hell? If you don’t want to sponsor just say it I wont get hurt, its not personal, just stop wasting my time and yours.. If you are interested say it if not also say it, keeping people hanging doesnot make you more important, on the contrary, it makes you less professional..

I have people who approached us asking for urgent meetings and then begging us to help their marketing or PR departments get on track ASAP of course.  But after long hours of research and preparing presentations and scope of work, they disappear, and pretend as if we are haunting them..

And of course don’t let me start on deadlines.. they just isn’t any. They do not respect time what so ever..

I remember having a meeting with one of our Clients to present him with our strategy that we worked on for 3 months, he of course came in late, and wasted half an hour talking on the mobile with his wife about using his credit card to buy groceries, in the middle of the MEETING!!!

 I have a lot of regional friends who were allocated here in Jordan for several years projects, they are suffering, they have been to a lot of countries but have never seen anything worse than here..  

Its sad, I am a very proud Jordanian, but when I hear something like that I get sad because I cannot deny it…