MUSCAT: With a current total of 507 Omani women employees (around 23 per cent of the total workforce), 110 of them having already completed 25 years of service and another 30 with 30 years of service, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) has from the outset been an equal opportunities employer. This is in line with the ideals behind the Sultanate's recent hosting of its first Omani Women's Day, which is to be an annual event held every October 17. It fulfils the ideals behind the Omani women's campaign that seeks to help women establish self-confidence, promote their participation in social development and ensure their welfare.
As stressed by the best example, the PDO women staff themselves, the company is truly an equal opportunities employer, with the company's women staff working in various positions right across the spectrum of PDO's career paths. Besides the accounting, HRM, administration and other service oriented departments, there are women employees working in PDO's engineering, seismic, geological, laboratory and various other departments, in positions that used to be considered the bastions of male staff only. In many respects, PDO has led the way in being a role model in the industry by giving their women employees just as many opportunities as their male counterparts receive.
This also comes in the scope of in-house and external courses, scholarships and sponsorships, allowing their talented employees the chance of gaining high professional, technical and academic qualifications that will help enhance their careers. Currently, and in the past, numerous PDO women staff hold some of the company's top positions, as directors, managerial, department and section heads. They have been selected for cross-postings and all of this, together with the longevity of work within the company, shows the commitment they and their male counterparts have in relation to their careers at PDO.
Although, due to the nature of work -- eg physically demanding work on oil rigs and the like -- there are some areas, particularly onsite at desert locations, where women staff are not employed. They do, however, go on working field-site visits and perform specific tasks as and when required. For many of the women staff, having a career and having a family is something of a balancing act. They have to balance their careers with home and family and, as women are generally considered to be the bedrock of all families, it can place extra demands on them.
However, they have been able to play the all-important family role and manage their careers at the same time. This is not simply out of necessity, or the need to bring in extra income, but, rather, in conformity to their strong desire to do well and excel in their chosen careers. This, again, is testimony to the high morale shared by all of PDO's employees, male and female. With strong commitment towards charitable events and activities that help those most in need in society, a number of the company's women staff are involved in organising and participating in these events and in other NGO activities, such as the annually held Cancer Walk. Over the years, they have been successful in helping to raise hundreds of thousands of Omani rials for these noble causes.
Ali Ahmed al Riyami
© Oman Daily Observer 2010
