KUWAIT: Kuwait recently approved a new system for employee attendance in the government sector, requiring biometric fingerprint scans three times during the workday. This initiative is part of Kuwait’s broader reforms aimed at advancing the country and addressing the common issue of employees leaving their workplace without permission. This decision has been met with mixed reactions from Kuwaitis. Kuwait Times interviewed locals working in the public sector to look into their opinions on the new system.

Fatima Hussein, a Kuwaiti engineer working in the government sector, expressed her dissatisfaction with the introduction of the third fingerprint scan. She described it as a waste of time and effort. Fatima argued that those who leave during working hours will continue to do so between the first and second scans or between the second and third.

“While the decision was meant to reflect progress and order, it actually indicates the opposite. It is very disappointing to see that as the world moves towards prioritizing performance over mere physical presence and counting work hours, Kuwait seems to be doing the exact opposite. Instead of focusing on productivity and efficiency, the emphasis has shifted to physical attendance and work hours, which are not accurate measures of a person’s effectiveness or the nation’s advancement. This consumes employees’ time and energy rather than benefiting from it,” she explained.

According to her, focusing on physical attendance and work hours is not an effective solution for reform; instead, employees should be entrusted with the responsibility to perform their work with high quality, meet deadlines, while having the freedom to manage their own time without stifling their passion and energy.

On the other hand, Zahra’a Murtada, another Kuwaiti engineer working in the government sector, pointed out that this new decision has introduced fairness into the workplace environment. Previously, some employees bore the brunt of work pressure while others left their offices without accountability, leading to a lack of seriousness during work hours. “It is not fair for those who are diligent in their work and care about earning their livelihood to bear the entire workload alone, especially since the work completed goes to the manager without any reward for those who accomplished it.

Equality in such circumstances is a form of injustice, as those who complete the work are not the same as those who just mark their attendance on the fingerprint scanner then leave the office.” Zahra’a expressed that although the third fingerprint scan does not provide a perfect and definitive solution to this issue, it at least alleviates the problem to some extent, and having some degree of fairness is better than none. She praised the government’s efforts in this regard.