Shunning Service jobs reveal a spoilt mindset (ST forum 24 Mar)
I READ with deep concern last Tuesday’s article, ‘Singaporeans shun jobs in service sector’.
Relatively low pay is just one small factor that keeps many Singaporeans, younger ones especially, away from such jobs. The real underlying reason is that they feel it is below their dignity to serve others.
In the service sector, there is an unwritten code that ‘the customer is always right’. Many feel that this makes anyone who serves the customer a ’slave’ – and they don’t like that.
But if we do not learn to serve others, how can we really learn to lead with empathy and heart?
The number of cases of maids abused by Singaporean employers seems to be on the rise. The types of abuse also seem worse.
Are Singaporeans becoming more aggressive because of the excessive level of stress they are subjected to at work on a daily basis? Even if it is so, that should not be an excuse for such inhuman behaviour.
Many of our children grow up in homes where they are not required to do anything. Will they understand hard work (and I am not even talking about hardship)?
Most of those in my generation (I am 45) understand hard work because we were made to share household chores. My responsibilities at home included ironing clothes and mopping the floor.
Mind you, when I was young we did not have the sophisticated gadgets available today. The iron, for example, was 10 times heavier than it is today.
I am concerned that, when a child grows up without knowing what it takes to do things we take for granted, we will not have compassion and grace for those who do them for us.
Loke Parc Sen
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Singaporeans shun service sector due to low pay against the high cost of living in Singapore. Increase the pay of the low-income job to an average of $1800 to $2,000 basic pay for jobs like security, cleaners and other low paying jobs and we will have Singaporeans joining in droves. Presently these areas employed foreigners.
Maybe the Goverment could help to put the eligible freshly graduated students (boys and girls) from polytechnics and universities to be in national service for two to three years easing the job market.