Balancing work and faith during Ramadan

Shaik, tell me a bit about yourself, your role and where you are currently based with Sisk? 

My name is Shaik Nizamuddin, I’m a Senior Quantity Surveyor working in the Sisk UK Civils division. I started with Sisk last year also on the month of Ramadan in April, so I’ve seen two fasting months in one year!

I located to the UK from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where I was working in Dubai. Fasting over there was an obligation from the government. So instead of an eight-hour workday this was reduced to six hours. So, in Dubai, two hours were automatically in use for Ramadan.

Can you tell me anything about the move?

I joined the Commercial department at Sisk so it’s almost the same as Dubai. Different templates, different kind of environment, different country – so some cultural differences. I’m adapting quite well, people respect each other like how we do in the UAE, there’s a very good work environment here.

In terms of working with my colleagues, I don’t find any major differences. I find a good work/life balance here, people appreciate to take breaks. You can see in the emails from our Managing Directors and CEO talking about the importance of taking breaks throughout the day.   

What are some of the challenges of working through Ramadan? 

It’s a bit challenging, Ramadan is around fasting on the ninth month of the Lunar calendar. People usually think it is sunset to sunrise, but it’s really sunrise to sunset. At the moment, sunrise is around 6:20am and from this time you’re not supposed to eat or drink, it’s a complete fast. The last meal you have taken will be a couple of hours before, I drive 35-40 miles every day and this can be difficult on your energy levels.

Since we have to stop eating at around 4:10am, We have to wake up at 3am to prepare a meal and then pray, I’ll have a nap from around 5am to 6:30am. What I find from my own personal experience is when you wake up, driving is difficult! Working in the morning is ok, but as time passes on into the evening, I feel exhausted. The energy peak goes down heavily throughout the day, particularly towards sunset.

Do you find that construction in comparison to other industries is difficult for people during Ramadan?  

I would say for people like me who are travelling long distances to work, it is certainly difficult. Since I am in the office, I am ok, I only go to site maybe once a week, a few times a month depending on whether I have to see the site progress.

If they are site operatives (observing Ramadan), it is definitely a tough task for them. Let’s say our site was four kilometres and someone in site operations is going to check the levels in different areas, they have to travel all that distance and then come back to the office. For those people, it will be a challenging task for their energy.  

Ramadan this year, and for the next 15 years or so will be cold because every year Ramadan always starts eleven days before the previous years. So, Ramadan going forward will be in February, January, December, November and so on in a colder period.

What has Sisk done to accommodate you and other Muslim staff observing Ramadan? 

My team has acknowledged that I’m fasting, I’ve told my line manager that I’ll be going half an hour before the end of the day to get home before sunset. My line manager says that’s fine, there’s no problem with that. We have prayer rooms on sites which is great for us.

Others could consider that Muslim staff are fasting in the month of Ramadan. If you notice that they are not performing on-time or they are a bit late to the office, have a bit of consideration that their energy levels are at their normal levels.