ESCWA in Beirut : Beware - Extremely restrictive work-from-home policies
Pros
[UN - ESCWA in Beirut]: Casual dress code, good salary
Cons
[UN-ESCWA in Beirut]: The Executive Secretary overrides remote working policies that are in place at other UN Secretariat posts. For all staff employed at ESCWA, she only allows remote working 1 day a week, not on Fridays or Mondays, not after an annual leave day, not after an annual holiday. These are universally applied across the board and direct managers have no power to override them. The ES clearly operates on an outdated model of management - i.e making people stay in the building in order to ensure productivity, not based on outputs or results. I'd therefore warn any international staff with family commitments in other countries to strongly consider this before taking a post at ESCWA, as there is zero room for empathy for personal situations in the interpretation of these rules.