A month of three weeks

Labour Day falls on a Friday this year, which is the only generous thing this month does.

The month has thirty-one days in it. It holds twelve.

Count them. The UAE works Monday to Friday. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait work Sunday to Thursday. Anything that needs a person in Riyadh and a person in Dubai available on the same afternoon happens Monday to Thursday, and there are sixteen of those in May.

Then take the end off. Eid al-Adha is expected around the twenty-seventh, depending on the sighting, with Hajj expected in the last week. The two days before a holiday of that size are not working days either; the office is open and the decisions are not being made in it. That is four of the sixteen gone, and the exam fortnight in the middle thins the afternoons of what is left.

Twelve shared working days. Three weeks, sitting inside a wall calendar with thirty-one squares on it.

Plans get built against the squares. Then they meet the twelve, and the difference is charged to whoever asked for the approval.

Which is why May is not really a month. It is the last window in which something can be approved before the desks start emptying, and they stay empty for a long time. The Gulf clears out in July and August, and whoever stays is covering for two other people.

So anything that needs a second signature and does not start moving this week will not be approved in June. It will run on its defaults all summer: last year's settings, last year's creative, last year's offer, chosen by nobody, until September puts the people who could have decided back at their desks.