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International project management
Published in John M. Nicholas, Herman Steyn, Project Management for Engineering, Business and Technology, 2020
John M. Nicholas, Herman Steyn
Every country has its own non-work holidays. The United States has seven national public holidays. Most European countries have nine to 11 national holidays, with many additional regional holidays. A project that involves participants from, say, four countries with five different national holidays could conceivably face 20 days of holiday downtime. The Ramadan and Chinese New Year holidays affect the schedules of many projects. Even when different counties share the same holidays, exact dates may differ. The Christmas holiday runs in the United States December 23 through January 2, but in Russia and some Eastern European countries, it is December 31 through January 8—sometimes later. In the southern hemisphere, the summer holidays fall in December and sometimes halt project work for most of the month. The “weekend” in many parts of the world is Saturday and Sunday, but in the Middle East, it is Friday and Saturday. While these differences create problems for some projects, they offer opportunities to others by enabling work to continue at different places around the world 7 days per week.
Successfully Adjusting Project Schedules and Costs
Published in Joseph Eli Kasser, Systemic and Systematic Project Management, 2019
However, in the 1980s, Luz in Israel had a 40-h workweek for 4 days a week as compared with the regular 5 or even 5.5 h working day in other companies. Everybody worked Monday to Thursday, and had a 3-day weekend. This allowed the Muslims to have their day of rest on Friday, the Jews to have their day on Saturday and the Christians to have their day on Sunday. However, from time to time, the company did ask employees to work overtime for a few weeks to meet a delivery deadline. However, the company did not pay any employee overtime for the first 8 h of overtime in a week. This provided the company with the reputation of working a 4-day week in a time where most companies worked 5 or more days, and the benefit of not having to pay employees for overtime for their first 8 h of overtime each a week. It also provided the employees with the incentive to focus on the work and complete the project on schedule to minimize the amount of unpaid overtime they would have to put in.
Work in progress
Published in David Chappell, Understanding JCT Standard Building Contracts, 2017
If the clerk of works gives a direction to the contractor, it is of no effect. This means that not only can the contractor ignore it but also that it is in breach of contract if it takes any action, or becomes inactive, as the case may be, on account of the direction. The clause then contains the curious provision that a direction of the clerk of works will be effective if given on a matter on which the architect is empowered by the contract to issue instructions and if the direction is confirmed by the architect within two business days of issue of the direction. A ‘Business Day’ is defined as any day other than Saturday, Sunday or a Public Holiday. The direction is then deemed to be an architect’s instruction effective from the date of the architect’s confirmation.
Priming drivers by exposure to active and inactive speed displays
Published in Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, 2021
The experiment was conducted on two different late-summer Saturday mornings, at the same time of day, for a few hours each time; each experiment was dedicated to examining one of the conditions presented. Visibility was excellent, the roads were dry, and there were no environmental or infrastructure constraints limiting the transportation flow. We decided to conduct the experiment on Saturdays for two reasons. First, Saturday is the official day of rest in Israel. Therefore, the vast majority of businesses and schools are closed, leisure activities are minimal, and there is no rush to get to work or school on time. Second, in Israel over a third of the population consists of religious Jews, and many others respect the Jewish tradition that prohibits driving on Saturdays. Hence, traffic load on Saturdays is significantly lower compared to the other weekdays; the roads are relatively free and traveling speed is mainly at the drivers’ command.