Last updated: 3 August 2026
Why these exist
MRKZD works because everyone here is a verified professional and everyone knows it. That is the whole product. These guidelines protect it.
Most of what follows is common sense. A few rules are stricter than you might expect — particularly around naming people and companies. That is deliberate, and Section 3 explains why.
Breaking these guidelines can cost you your membership. Read them once properly.
1. Be someone worth talking to
Assume the person on the other side is competent, busy, and dealing with something real.
- Answer the question that was asked. Not the question you wish had been asked.
- Say what you actually think. Diplomatic disagreement is more useful than agreeable silence.
- Share the specifics. "Check the labour law" helps nobody. "Article 43 covers this, and in practice MOHRE has been reading it as..." helps everybody.
- Say when you're not sure. Confident wrong answers about UAE employment law cause real damage to real people.
- Credit your sources. If you learned it from a webinar, a lawyer, or a colleague, say so.
2. Disagree properly
Professional disagreement is the point of a community like this. Personal attacks are not.
Fine: "I've seen that approach backfire — here's what happened when we tried it."
Not fine: "Anyone who thinks that has never actually run an HR function."
Attack the reasoning, not the person. If a thread turns personal, step away and report it rather than escalating.
3. Do not name individuals or companies in a negative context
This is the rule people break most often, and it carries the most serious consequences.
Do not post content that names, identifies, or makes identifiable any individual or organisation in an accusatory, disparaging, or negative way. This includes indirect identification — "the delivery company in JLT with the Indian CEO" identifies someone just as effectively as naming them.
This applies whether you post under your name or anonymously.
Why this rule is stricter than you may be used to: defamation is a criminal matter in the UAE, not just a civil one, and it applies to online content. A post that would be an ordinary vent on a forum elsewhere can expose you to criminal liability here. This rule exists to protect you, not to protect the companies.
How to have the conversation anyway — describe the situation, not the party:
Instead of: "[Company name] is refusing to pay my colleague's gratuity."
Write: "A mid-size logistics company is disputing a gratuity calculation on the basis that the employee resigned during probation. Has anyone dealt with this argument?"
You get the same answers. You keep the same anonymity for the other party. Nobody ends up in a police station.
4. Protect confidential information
Do not post anything you are not free to share.
That includes: employee records or personal data about anyone, salary figures tied to identifiable people, internal documents, board or leadership discussions, client information, anything covered by an NDA or your employment contract, and screenshots of internal systems or private messages.
Anonymising properly means removing more than the name. Job title plus company size plus emirate plus industry is often enough to identify someone. Strip the detail until the situation is genuinely unrecognisable, or do not post it.
If you would not want it read aloud in front of the person it concerns, do not post it.
5. Using anonymous posting well
Anonymous posting exists so that the hardest conversations can happen — the ones where posting under your name would put your job or your professional standing at risk.
Good reasons to post anonymously:
- You are being asked to do something you think is unlawful or unethical
- You are dealing with a situation at your own company you cannot discuss openly
- You are asking about compensation, career moves, or your own position
- You are sharing a mistake you made so others can avoid it
- You are raising something sensitive about your industry
Not reasons to post anonymously:
- To say something about a person you would not say to their face
- To promote yourself or your business without attribution
- To stir up conflict without accountability
- To get around a warning or restriction on your main account
What anonymity actually is here: other members cannot see who you are. Our team can. We look only when investigating a report, a serious guideline breach, or a legal complaint. We do not look out of curiosity, and we never tell other members.
What anonymity is not: protection from the law. Everything in Section 3 applies to anonymous posts exactly as it applies to signed ones.
6. No spam, no cold pitching
MRKZD is a community, not a lead list.
Not allowed:
- Unsolicited sales messages to members you have not interacted with
- Posting the same content across multiple threads or categories
- Threads that exist only to advertise your services
- Adding members to mailing lists, WhatsApp groups, or newsletters without their agreement
- Using the directory to build a prospect list
- Bulk or automated messaging
Allowed:
- Mentioning what you do when it is directly relevant to a discussion
- Answering a question by explaining how you approach that work
- Responding to someone who asked for a recommendation
- Posting a genuine event, workshop, or resource in the right place
- Reaching out to one person about something specific to them
The test: are you contributing to a conversation, or extracting from a list?
7. Recruitment and poaching
Recruiters are welcome here. Recruiting from here has limits.
Allowed: posting genuine roles in the appropriate category, discussing the market openly, responding when someone says they are looking.
Not allowed: messaging members about roles when they have not indicated they are open, using the directory to systematically approach people at a competitor, or misrepresenting a role to get a conversation.
8. Events
If you post an event:
- It must be real, and the details must be accurate
- The registration link must work and must go to the actual event
- If it is paid, say so clearly and state the price
- If it is primarily a sales pitch, say that too — some people will still want to attend
- Update or remove the listing if anything changes
Do not post events you are not involved in organising unless the details are publicly available and accurate.
9. One person, one account
Your account is yours. Do not create a second one, do not let someone else use yours, and do not post on behalf of a colleague.
If you change jobs, update your profile rather than starting again.
10. What we do when something breaks
We do not moderate every post before it appears. We rely on members reporting things and on our own review.
How to report: use the report button on any post, reply, or profile, or email legal@mrkzd.com for anything serious or urgent. Tell us what the problem is. Reports are confidential — the person reported is not told who reported them.
What happens next:
| Situation | What we do |
|---|---|
| Minor, first time — wrong category, mild self-promotion | We edit or move it, and tell you why |
| Guideline breach | Content removed, written warning |
| Repeat breach after a warning | Posting suspended for a period |
| Serious breach — naming and shaming, confidential data, harassment | Content removed immediately, account suspended pending review |
| Severe or repeated serious breach | Permanent removal |
| Potentially unlawful content | Content removed, account suspended, matter escalated as required |
Appeals: if you think we got it wrong, email legal@mrkzd.com within 14 days. A different person from the one who made the original decision will review it. We will respond within 14 days.
11. When we may identify an anonymous poster
To be completely clear about this, because trust in anonymous posting depends on knowing exactly where the line is.
We will look at who posted anonymous content only when:
- We are investigating a report of a serious guideline breach
- We receive a credible legal complaint about the post
- We are required to by a competent UAE authority, a court order, or applicable law
We will not disclose an anonymous poster's identity to another member, ever.
If we are legally compelled to disclose your identity to an authority, we will tell you unless we are prohibited from doing so.
12. Changes
We will update these guidelines as the community grows and we learn what works. Material changes will be announced on the Platform.
The short version
Contribute something. Disagree without getting personal. Never name and shame. Never post what is not yours to post. Do not sell to people who did not ask. Use anonymity for hard questions, not for cheap shots.
Questions: legal@mrkzd.com