Manama: With Ramadan set to start in four weeks, public opinion in Saudi Arabia seems to be divided over the most suitable office hours for the public sector during the fasting month.

The Saudi blogosphere is filled with proposals highlighting the relative merits of keeping the working hours to the mornings or the afternoons.

Physically fit Muslim men and women are expected to abstain from food and drink from sunrise until sunset during Ramadan.

Some participants in the debates held the view that office work, set at five hours daily for the duration of Ramadan, should start at 7 am and finish at noon so that those observing the fast would be spared the searing heat of the afternoon.

A similar proposal had been submitted to the authorities years ago and the ministry of civil service is looking into it again amid concerns that the excessive heat would hamper people from doing their jobs well, local news site Al Marsad reported on Sunday.

Another group, however, is pushing for the office hours to start at noon and finish at 5 pm, a short time before sunset and the end of the fast. This group argues that, given the deep-rooted traditions of staying up late, often until suhour, the last meal before sunrise, those in the Gulf region and Egypt tend to rise late and would only be in a position to go to work by afternoon.

Forcing people to report to work in the morning would be counterproductive and would not help administrative matters or the economy in any way, this group says. For this reason, it was not unusual for employees to present all kinds of excuses for not coming to work, they said.

According to Al Marsad, women preferred the morning office hours “in order to be able to go home early and have ample time to prepare the elaborate dishes to be shared during the special month.”

Several other people supported the view that the morning hours would help people observing the fast avoid the searing summer temperatures.

Khalid Al Sulaiman, a writer, said that he preferred the afternoon shift.

“I hope the information we are reading on microblogs and social media about morning office hours is not true,” he said. “The normal procedure is to help people lead normal lives and not turn their days into nights and their nights into days. What I suggest is that we have office hours in the afternoon, so that people can rest in the morning.”

The official office hours for the last few years have been from 10 am until 3 pm.