Counting Working Days Across the UAE’s 2022 Change

·Published: 16 September 2026

A date range crossing the start of 2022 needs special care when counting UAE federal working days. The weekend changed from Friday and Saturday to Saturday and Sunday, so the same weekday can have a different status on either side of the boundary. Applying one weekend pattern to the entire interval can include dates that should be excluded and exclude dates that should count. The reliable approach is to divide the range at 1 January 2022, calculate each part using its own weekly pattern, and add the results.

What changed at the start of 2022?

Before the change, the federal working week ran from Sunday to Thursday, with Friday and Saturday as the weekend. From 1 January 2022, the federal pattern became Monday to Friday, with Saturday and Sunday as the weekend. Friday became a shortened working day, with hours reduced around midday for Jumu'ah prayers. Saturday therefore stays outside the working-day count in both periods. Sunday changes from a working day to a weekend day, while Friday changes in the opposite direction. Those two weekdays are the main points to check in a historical interval.

First establish whether the question concerns calendar days, working dates or working hours. Calendar days include every date regardless of the weekly schedule, so the weekend change does not alter their total. A working-date count treats each eligible date as one day, even when its scheduled hours are shorter. An hours total requires the actual daily schedule. Also state whether the start and end dates are included. A range covering both dates can produce a different answer from a calculation that starts counting on the following day.

Split the interval without losing a date

For an inclusive range, place all dates up to and including 31 December 2021 in the first segment. Place dates from 1 January 2022 onwards in the second. Keep the original start and end dates as the outer limits. These segments must meet without overlapping: 31 December belongs only to the earlier part, and 1 January belongs only to the later part. Within the earlier segment, retain Sunday through Thursday. Within the later segment, retain Monday through Friday. This gives the working dates before any applicable public holidays are excluded.

The split is a change in classification, rather than an extra day added to the interval. If the original range contains six calendar dates, the two segments must still contain six dates altogether. This provides a useful first check before examining weekends. For a calculation that excludes the original start date, remove that date once at the outer boundary. Do not exclude the first date of the second segment merely because a new segment has begun. Otherwise, splitting the range would change the counting convention halfway through.

A worked example across the boundary

Consider 30 December 2021 to 4 January 2022, including both dates. There are six calendar dates in this interval. The earlier segment contains Thursday 30 December and Friday 31 December. Under the former Sunday-to-Thursday working week, Thursday counts and Friday does not. That leaves one working date in the 2021 segment. The later segment contains Saturday 1 January, Sunday 2 January, Monday 3 January and Tuesday 4 January. Under the new federal pattern, Saturday and Sunday are excluded, while Monday and Tuesday count.

The result is three working dates: 30 December, 3 January and 4 January. New Year's Day falls on Saturday in this example, so excluding that holiday does not remove another working date; Saturday has already been left out. Applying the Monday-to-Friday pattern throughout would incorrectly count Friday 31 December and produce four. Applying the former Sunday-to-Thursday pattern throughout would incorrectly count Sunday 2 January and also produce four. Both shortcuts fail here, even though they make different mistakes. Listing the eligible dates makes the reason for the correct total visible.

A matching total does not always prove that a calculation is right. Over some longer intervals, an incorrectly included Friday can cancel out an incorrectly excluded Sunday. The final number then looks plausible even though the underlying dates are wrong. Check at least one Friday and one Sunday on each side of the change whenever those dates occur in the range. For example, Sunday 26 December 2021 belongs to the former working week, whereas Sunday 2 January 2022 belongs to the new weekend. Friday 7 January belongs to the new working week.

Keep holidays, hours and local schedules distinct

After identifying the eligible weekdays, exclude public holidays applicable to the historical interval. Each date can leave the working-day total only once: a holiday on an excluded weekend date does not create a second subtraction. Historical work also requires holiday dates and arrangements for the year concerned. A holiday list for a later year cannot establish which dates were days off in 2021 or 2022, particularly for observances whose Gregorian dates vary. Keep the weekend calculation and the holiday adjustment separate so that any change to the holiday information has a clear effect.

Finally, identify whose working week the total represents. Sharjah's government sector adopted a four-day week with a Friday-to-Sunday weekend in 2022, so the federal pattern does not describe that schedule. Other organisations may also use different hours or weekly arrangements. Even within the federal pattern, counting a shortened Friday as one working date does not make it equivalent to a full day's hours. A clear result therefore states the date range, whether both endpoints count, the applicable weekly schedule, the holiday exclusions and whether the answer measures dates or hours.