An office move is judged on one number: how long the business could not work. Everything in this checklist exists to keep that number at zero, and the Dubai working week makes it achievable — close Thursday, move over the weekend, open Sunday.
Eight to twelve weeks before
- Order connectivity at the new office. This is the longest lead time in the entire project and the most common cause of an office move slipping.
- Confirm the fit-out and cabling schedule at the new premises, and when it will be genuinely ready.
- Check both buildings’ access rules — goods lift hours, permit or fit-out approval requirements, weekend working.
- Agree the moving weekend with the leadership team and put it in the company calendar.
- Appoint one internal move coordinator with authority to make decisions.
Four to six weeks before
- Book site visits with movers at both offices and get a written move plan, not just a price.
- Produce a numbered floor plan for the new office. Every desk gets a number — this is what the whole labelling system hangs on.
- Decide what is moving and what is being disposed of. Clearing old furniture is easy when planned and disruptive when discovered.
- Brief your IT provider and agree who decommissions and recommissions what, and in what order.
- Apply for building permits or contractor approvals at both ends.
Two weeks before
- Send staff their desk numbers and packing instructions.
- Deliver crates to the office so people can pack their own desk contents.
- Confirm the goods lift bookings and loading bay slots at both buildings.
- Update the business address with the licensing authority, your bank, suppliers and clients.
- Arrange mail redirection.
- Test that the new office connectivity is actually live — not scheduled, live.
The final week
- Staff pack desk contents into numbered crates and label their own monitors and peripherals.
- Confidential files go into sealed, numbered crates with a log.
- Back up everything. Then verify the backup actually restores.
- Confirm the crew arrival time and the named contact reachable through the night.
- Photograph the server room and desk setups before anything is disconnected.
The moving weekend
- Thursday evening — IT decommissions, crew begins dismantling and loading.
- Friday — transport, unloading and workstation rebuild against the numbered floor plan.
- Saturday — IT reconnection, testing, and fixing whatever did not work. Something always does not work.
- Sunday — staff arrive at numbered desks with their own equipment already in place.
The first week after
- Keep a visible snag list and work through it rather than letting issues accumulate silently.
- Arrange crate collection once people have unpacked.
- Confirm the old premises is cleared to the landlord’s satisfaction and the deposit inspection is booked.
- Update the address anywhere it was missed — it is always missed somewhere.
More detail on how we run these on the office moving page. Most of the Dubai office moves we handle are in or around Business Bay and JLT.