Written by: Gilbert Goh
I have met up with Kelvin thrice so far and am always amazed at his survival instinct and determination to look at the bright side of life despite the adverse odds that plagued him these past few years.
Kelvin is an avid reader of our Transitioning. Org blog.
The fact that we are born on the same year – 1961 also helped to draw us closer as close buddies.
Used to earning $4000 a month as a sales manager just three years ago before been retrenched during the global financial crisis, he is reduced to ekking out a living as a dishwasher now making $6.00 an hour at a cafeteria – a lone Singaporean amidst a sea of foreigners in this service-orientated industry.
Single, articulate and focused, Kelvin tried to see things from a glass half full than half empty perspective and perhaps this is how he has thrived all this while – even when things went pretty much downhill the past few years.
He has a diploma in management from SIM and used to work with the SAF for 11 years as a navy communications supervisor. His last drawn salary was around $2000 then.
He later went on to do sales for another ten years earning between $3000 – $4000 and living quite a comfortable life.
He travelled widely and provided well for his two ageing parents. As he stays with them in a fully-paid HDB 4-room flat, he could save up quite a lot and thought that his retirement plan is pretty much in place. He has no lack and life was simple but comfortable.
He has no fancy dream to upgrade to a condo like most Singaporeans do and after several failed attempts to get hitched, he decided to stay single.
“Maybe marriage life is not for me!” he qulped. “And moreover, it could be a blessing in disguise as many of my friends’ marriages broke up.”
His perpetual sanguine remarks peppered the several meetings we had over the past two months and I told him that he had the hallmark of a survivor in him.
Retrenchment
Like many PMETs during the 2007 global financial crisis, Kelvin was retrenched from a $4000-a-month sales job and life went very much downhill from then on.
After sending out thousands of emails for work vacancies and countless failed interviews, he decided that he could not hang on anymore.
Moreover, his savings were mostly exhausted and he has two aged parents to take care of. He tried out security work for the past two years drawing a salary of around $1200 a month.
The security job provided for his basic necessities and soothed the frantic desperation in him when his life savings – meant for his retirement needs, dwindled down to the low thousands.
Nevertheless, the shift work nature of the security field soon took a toil on his frail body.
He had three operations on his weak heart before and a pacemarker was finally installed so that he could breathe properly. In all, the operations wiped off $40, 000 from his CPF accounts. He also panted easily and could not take up any work that taxes the physical part of him.
He has to quit from the security job after two years as he feared that his weak body may not be able to take the physical strain anymore without futher damaging the impaired heart.
Failed Business Venture
During these few months, he tried his hand at setting up a business in Myamar and sank $20, 000 into the venture. It was a telecommunication business venture.
He knew that he would not be able to make it back in the sales line industry as there were less than five interviews throughout a 12-month period despite thousands of applications emailed out.
The venture bombed badly on him and he recounted how the failed business made him looked silly and incompetent.
“Maybe I am not cut out for business, Gilbert,” he told me.
“The business partner in Myamar simply said that the venture could not carry on anymore due to some legislation and the $20, 000 that I sank in completely went to ashes.” There was no recourse for any compensation and it took him a few weeks before he could accept that his money was as good as gone.
Part of the money was from his life savings and the other part he took out from banks’ overdraft.
Bankruptcy
Ominously, he was sued by three banks as he utilized his credit cards and overdraft to survive during that period. The accrued total amount owed was only $16, 000.
He is down to his low thousands and fortunately his sister helped to pay for the flat’s utilities bills and general basic necessities.
He is now waiting for the bankruptcy suit as he didn’t want to keep paying the minimum payment to the three banks.
I told him that it was silly to be made a bankrupt because of a $16, 000 debt.
“Its never ending,” he told me. “The amount never dwindled and if you make a payment late, the penalty fee could be as much as $50.”
“You ended up just servicing the interest monthly but the principal is always there – umoved.”
Personally, I have never seen a person welcoming bankruptcy so readily. Many people would have borrow, beg or even steal to pay off the small amount to avoid bankruptcy but not Kelvin. Perhaps, the strain of having to find enough money to pay off the monthly minimum payment took such a toil that on him that its better to face the music now than dying in a slow painful death.
However, the bankruptcy suit also brought about a ugly twist of event.
I was troubled to receive a string of texts from him last month asking me to check with a lawyer whether the bailiff could be barred from entering the person’s home.
Normally, when a bankruptcy suit is entered here, the court will appoint a baliff to serve notice to the occupiers that the home’s possessions will be seized and sold off as part of the bankruptcy’s writ.
This was troubling Kelvin a lot as he did not want his aged parents to be bothered in any way by his financial misjudgement.
He told his dad about the writ and he freaked out calling him names that were unprintable. He loved his parents very much and the last thing he wanted is to implicate them in any way.
Hurt and wounded, he decided to move out so that he could change his address and hopefully the baliff will find him at his rental place instead of his parents’ home - where he has stayed for the past 49 years.
He is still at odds with his aging dad.
Dishwashing Job
In his desperation, he took up a dishwashing job which paid around $6 an hour. He worked the night shift from 6 to 10pm.
“At least my basic necessities of food and transport are provided for,” he told me in his usual cheery disposition.
He told me that he needs about $500 a month to survive on and still could give about $200 to his parents as pocket money. I told him that many Singaporeans spent $500 a week alone on food!
“There is nothing much for me to hope for now except to have three meals a day and a roof over my head,” Kelvin told me the last time that we caught up over dinner at Plaza Singapura foodcourt.
“It’s also fortunate that I am single as I don’t have to really provide for my family. I can’t imagine what will happen to my family if I have to work as a dish washer to provide for their needs. My wife will probably leave me.”
Kelvin hoped to see more priorities in employment given to local Singaporeans who are in transition. There is hardly any policy that sees to the rehiring needs of local Singaporeans – like giving them some priority over foreign workers.
“There are all kinds of work permits that allow our employers to hire foreigners over local Singaporeans!” he told me in a rare display of frustration.
“I have given up applying for sales positions as after three years of trying, I have more or less given up hope that I am able to return to my old trade.”
“Maybe I will be a dishwasher for the rest of my life…”
Kelvin is only 49 years old and as I looked at him that day, his situation does not look very bright and things may not turn around for him anytime soon. Ominously, when he left his previous part-time dishwashing job due to personal reasons, he began to look up another dishwashing job citing the ease at finding such work as one main reason.
I wondered how many Kelvins are out there washing dishes, putting on the smart security guard uniform or driving a cab when our foreign talents are happily working away and making decent salary… it just does not make any sense here. Don’t get me wrong – I am not against people who are dishwashers, security guards or cabbies.
It’s just that after studying for 15 years in our world class educational system, clocking up decades of work experience in a first world economy and putting in the required 24 months of national service defending our nation, we are reduced to such pathetic state when we have reach our forties? Something is very wrong somewhere out there…and our renowed meritocratic system may have failed all of us here.
Tens of thousands of such situations sprang up in the last 4-5 years. You can go for RETRAINING and get more certs, but you will never a jobs once you hit the deadly 40!
A ex-classmate of mine had just passed away. He had problem with his heart. After an operation and three years on medication, he was left high and dry. His schooling childrens and aged parents had also add to his already heavy burden. As he had to go to the hospital frequently for check ups and the medication cost a bomb, he was completely exhausted from the stress to meet ends. He was retrench two years ago and for a year unable to get a decent job. He stopped his check ups medication and his health deteriorated further. 3 weeks back he collapsed and passed away.
This is the price that we pay for working to built this nation so hard during the 80s & 90s. What do we get? A life comparable to the third world country while the government pat themselves on the back for job well done and increase their already obscene salaries to even greater heights.
This is the so called SWISS STANDARD LIVING!
singapore needs to be meriotocratic to survive in this everchanging world
We have spent billions educating our people the last 40 years. These are the people who have the academic foundation to be retrained, as well as the maturity and corporate experience to be of continued value to the nation. To then not do anything to help prolong their “usefulness” to the country is tantamount to mismanaging the billions spent over the years! The ROI is far too low.
Retraining does not mean just going for some new academic courses. It is also about On-The-Job training. Just like in our early years of industrialisation, we used to look to Germany at their apprenticeship schemes for ideas. It is equally important now, even if we have moved into service industries.
What such PMETS need is a leg into these new-age industries, sending them for courses only is not working as well as is being reported. Once given the opportunity to proof themselves, their maturity will kick in and allow them to see how their previous corporate experiences, coupled with the training they newly received, can be similarly applicable to these new industries, with some tweaks here and there.
Yes, we have already attracted these MNCs here and cannot deny them the “immediate” manpower they need to run their busineses. But we can always find ways to “encourage” them to give our experienced and mature PMETs a try first, just like how EDB find ways to attract MNCs to come here.
Companies are profit driven. If they can find 2 cheaper but less experienced and mature person to do 1, more expensive, PMET’s job, they will. That being the case, wouldn’t the recent budget giveaway be better spent, if it were used to “subsidise” MNCs to employ such PMETs for 1 year. Similar to the scheme the govt had at the height of the financial crises, subsidising the salaries of workers sent for training, instead of being retrenched. For that 1 year, the “leg in” given to such PMETs, should be sufficient for them to pick up the ropes and proof to the bosses that the productivity gains they can get from our educated and experienced PMETs, would more than outweigh the higher cost. If not, they have only themselves to blame if they get kicked out after 1 year.
We Sporeans have often been described as hard working, dependable, honest. Yet, it pains me to see that our Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs), the people at the top that are supposed to be marketing us, can only use “the pricing strategy”.
After 40 odd years of training, of winning ourselves such reputations as hardworking, honest, etc, we must have more core competencies to offer which can justify our higher price. If all our CMOs can do is to offer cheap FTs to solve the MNCs manpower needs, then what is the purpose of attracting all these Foreign Investments if the better jobs they create are not mostly met by our own people.
We are not talking about giving such PMETs handouts, we are talking about helping them find a way to get into such better paying jobs that we are able to attract, by opening some doors for them.
Is that too much to ask?
While this article sounded sympathetic, Singapore is place where your birth rights is not a universal passport of being spoon-fed. You are talking like Mahathir for Bumi Rights. I hope you are not suggesting that Singapore go down that way.
Grumble all you want you losers but your government did the right thing to make it so. You have no idea what a heavily social secured nation will cost you.
I know of a lot of people in similar fate as Kelvin. I am one such person. Even as a bankrupt and a ex-convict with lesser skillset than Kelvin, I not only have opportunities in Singapore but I have many options as well. Kelvin chose the option to be a dishwasher and degrade himself in this manner. I did not. I chose to looked for a better life despite all the limitations.
And if you think that I’m a Singaporean, I’m not. I’m one of those FTs that many of you Singaporeans hate so much. I only wanted to lead a better life to venture out in Singapore. I’m 47 yrs old and I don’t have much time left to build that better life for my family.
Majority of Singaporeans are nice but there’s a minority of Singaporeans (people like you guys) had made my life miserable.
I came here to seek a better life. And I found it. But I was cheated (by a Singaporean by the way) and I was made to pay his crime. Now a bankrupt, I cannot leave your country (because your good government protects you suckers which I think it is good and responsible to do so).
Imagine yourself in my shoes… stuck in a foreign land. You can’t leave. No money. Hard to get a job because the locals discriminate you and many employers rather hire locals. No benefit as enjoyed by natives here. Still I’m able to find a decent job as a front office manager in the hospitality which btw Singaporeans shy away from.
So Kelvin, with all your qualifications you too can get a better job than a dishwasher. Even a taxi driver gets you $3000 a month. So, stop dwelling in self pity and look into the spoon-fed directions that your government had paved for you. I’m sure you will find a better life than you have right now. There are many jobs out there for Singaporeans. It is just that you are not taking them. Singaporeans have more options and opportunities than stupid FTs like me. So if I can survive in here, it will be a shame if you can’t. I know the editor will not publish this comment but I will publish it else where anyway.
Kelvin does not need to be a dishwasher.
At least he could be a Taxi Driver.
I wondered how many Kelvins are out there washing dishes, putting on the smart security guard uniform or driving a cab when our foreign talents are happily working away and making decent salary… it just does not make any sense here.
Gilbert,
Perhaps I can offer you some sense since you asked.
Most Singaporeans are good workers and I stress most. Some, well, aren’t. Education or otherwise, they just aren’t good workers and they often have mindset issues as highlighted by PAP Supporter and Chilling Crabs.
I’m actually quite sympathetic to Kelvin because he doesn’t seem like a typical whiner and owns up to his own financial mismanagement/misjudgement, unlike some losers who will blame everyone except themselves.
I’m a Singaporean and I’m quite embarrassed by all these anti-foreigner sentiments. The private sector is very practical. It is not in the business of doing charity. Those who want higher pay, better figure out how to EARN that pay. I have met excellent Singaporean workers who have no problem holding their ground against FTs. The FTs cannot touch them. Of course, you won’t find them complaining here.
There are only three solutions for those who cannot compete: (i) look in the mirror and try harder, (ii) adjust their expectations, or (iii) migrate. The PAP will not lose this coming GE. Even if the PAP is replaced, let’s have no illusions that life can get too much better.
People need to get real and realize that the world has changed since the 80s and 90s. Many countries are teetering at the brink of financial collapse fundamentally because of unsustainable and populist policies. There are hardly any solutions to this well-known problem of structural unemployment. Most countries have chosen to pay people off for votes — and homelessness is truly very common.
Dear “Pap supporter” who wrote at 1.18pm,
The tone of yr message speaks volumes about yr Bad attitude, Lousy character and Strong negativity, Miserable hatred and Pathetic vengeance.
Anyway, all the best.
@ Some sense, I think that your statements imply that there is a division between “good” and “bad” and that we have to work to get what we want. I don’t disagree with you on some counts, but I think you are in some ways also denigrating what Singaporeans have gotten into as a result of the whole liberal policies administered years back. In fact, I think your remarks also smack of a kind of elitism in which you claim those who are poorer and do not make it simply did not try “hard enough”, which is not always the case. We have had cases like Dr Cai Mingjie, a former professor turned taxi driver who undertook that choice to drive a taxi because he needed to earn money to feed his family while he was retrenched from the National U of Singapore. Are you implying that casualties of management malpractices and strategies in workplaces did not “try hard enough”? There are lots of poor people or less than well-to-do folks in Singapore who do stuff like selling chicken rice in the marketplace, selling tissue paper and towels in a small shop, or even selling funeral ‘gold paper’, and they are by no means what we call “capable of competing with the businessman in the private sector”. Are you saying that they did not try hard enough to improve their situation?
To Kev J,
I’d like to quote you,
“We have had cases like Dr Cai Mingjie, a former professor turned taxi driver who undertook that choice to drive a taxi because he needed to earn money to feed his family while he was retrenched from the National U of Singapore. ”
In this case, for every Dr Cai Ming Jie that NUS retrenches, they can rehire a few double phds from china for a fraction of his salary. (I know because I KNOW OF a few chinese double phds researchers in NUS)
Hi Andy, about those Chinese PhD (double PhD holders at that), I am in fact very iffy about their qualifications. It is not so much anything but simply that a lot of regional Asian universities simply are not examined or subject to international bodies’ appraisal, and also, the means of obtaining all these degrees are also scarily not made clear or certain. It is a little ironic that NUS retrenched Dr Cai Mingjie, in that he was also a former China-born Chinese, but was landed here and really made Singapore his permanent home for over 20 years or so, and distinguished himself as a professor here. The way in which he became a casualty of the management strategies of NUS is disturbing nonetheless.
Peter Ho,
Thank you for your compliments. My tone may be harsh and unpleasant. But there’s truth within it. Good words are never pleasant. So thanks for the compliments.
@ PAP Supporter, this forum is to help Singaporeans who are jobless to transit to the next stage of life working, not to spill hatred. maybe if you really hate Singapore so much, you are already in the wrong place to begin with. No one can help you face the fact that you want to and need to get out of it, but you can at least make sure you return to your home country. That way, you won’t end up being so mean and nasty in generalizations about people in general, right? Then again, if you really really hate it here so much, why are you reading a forum which is meant to help those people whom you hate? I don’t get your logic that much. If you grow from love, of others and of yourself, you won’t ever end up behaving like this.
It is amazing how people choose to read what they want to read and not was was meant. Since when I hate and generalize? Read my comments again with an open mind and not a prejudiced one and I’m sure you will find that this FT loves the country and it’s people except for a few scumbs of the society that stained the beautiful place to live. Singapore is a place for equal opportunities and the govt do provide for its citizens. May be not in the way that the citizens can feel appreciative about. If you are truely so noble finding jobs for people, you need not have to post Kelvin’s story here as that will only make others feel that he was responsible for his own plight. Yes, people will sympathize but at the same time, people will not accept that being a dishwasher is a result of his misfortunes, but that of his very own choice. The fact remains that there are many options and opportunities here in Singapore. He may had been looking in all the wrong places or his mind is so indulged with self-pity that he is blind to the other options openned to him.
I know I may sound judgemental here but other than me being blunt, frank and vocal, my message is not without merits. Read beyond your superficial short sightedness and may be you will see where I am getting at. If you can’t, it is ok. You are entitled to your opinions. My discussion ends here.
Some sense, seriously, simply throwing people like Kevin under the bus just because they didn’t try “hard enough” is dare I say inhuman. I do get a bit irritated by all these anti-foreigner comments but root cause is lack of care for those who are in need is quite prevalent in higher echelons of SG society that is reflected in government policies.
Just one example: I was jogging the other day and an elderly lady had a flat tire on fairly busy street, she was waving to passing cars asking for help, apparently she wasn’t able to deal with the problem herself. Well, I thought, someone will stop and help her, but to my surprise 20 min later on the way back she was still there alone. I ended up fixing up the spare tire myself. I’d guess the people who drive cars are much more likely to be SG residents of the above average income and the fact that no one stopped makes me think that the policies reflect attitude of the people.
Another point, South Korea has much more robust social security system than SG and it is quite “asian” country with similar attitude toward work, however it’s not on the brink of collapse like some of the countries you allude to.
IMHO if society at large thought that caring for those in need is important it could have implemented at least something along those lines. However your comment does make me wonder: do you really feel content knowing that Kevin is getting you think he deserves like that old lady with broken car were ?
If that’s majority of SGs I don’t think Gilbert’s hope for change are going to materialize any time soon.
Citizens, don’t blame the foreign workers. they came to Singapore for a greener pasture, hoping to take good care of their families back home.
The fault lies with our govt’s political greed for absolute power in the parliament – something that foreigners don’t understand, it is our local issue.
By bringing high influx of foreigners in, esp. PRs, there will be higher chance to turn these PRs into new citizens to vote for PAP, the ruling party or present govt in this coming election, estimated to be in May this year. With higher votes garnered, PAP will have absolute parliamentary power to pass any bill it wants for its own political interests.
But the big problem: our govt cannot create all the jobs required for all citizens and 1.8m foreigners that makes up 37% of total population (2nd highest in the world after Hongkong – different story). So cheaper foreign labours replace citizens at various industries as employers as usual, are more concerned about making money than social issues.
So it is not the foreigners fault, but the fault of PAP. Vote wisely citizens, this election is critical and crucial !
The big flaw with the claim of PAP supporter is also that populist policies causes economic systems’ collapse. It is a claim that has no basis in economics or any social sciences or studies at all. The simple fact to explain economic trouble was in fact the ignoring of the populations, right up to a bunch of self-righteous people up in Wall Street whose greed got the better of them with them awarding themselves fat paychecks at the expense of everyone else. That is definitely NOT populist, but in fact elitist. Any country where the higher echelons, especially the government, starts doing that, is inevitably bound for the road to self-demise, whether they like it or not, and gerrymandering whatever they can to try making sure they stay in power is but part of their ploys and flicks in policy to make themselves look good at best.
Sorry, I don’t mean PAP Supporter. I meant Some Sense’s remarks!
Wow Mr. Gilbert Goh,
You are a new candidate of NSP for the coming GE. Looks like you are also not PAP supporter.
The system does not help people who have fallen through the cracks.
Hi Gilbert,
As a quick introduction, I am a career counsellor and have been helping people (both local and foreigners) find jobs in Singapore over the last few years.
It is tough for me to make generalisations due to lack of enough reliable data, on some of the issues here, such as:
- how hard it is for locals vs. foreigners to find jobs in Singapore
- whether the job/living situation for locals is better or worse, as compared to other developed countries
While there are some websites which try to unravel these issues, such as the Temasek Review and The Online Citizen, they can can quite one-sided as well and not show the complete picture. If there are other sources providing better information, I would be very interested to know of them.
What I can say and conclude, based on my own first-hand experience, is that:
- For people with decent undergraduate/postgraduate degrees and diplomas, it is just as hard for foreigners and locals to find a job. This applies to people in the early, mid and senior stages of their career
- For those with lower qualification levels, or those who are in fields which are extremely popular in developing countries, the situation is tougher for locals. This is primarily due to the cost factor
Coming to the person mentioned in this article (Kelvin). I do pro-bono work for people who are facing tough career situations for extended periods of time. If it’s alright with you and Kelvin, I would like to see if I can help in some way. Do get in touch with me on the email address I provided, if you think I can be of use.
my email is kelvin_lca@yahoo.com.
Thanks.
I dunno whether this case closed already or not. But am surprised that Gilbert’s network of contacts is unable to match Kelvin with a basic office fulltime job with lighter duties e.g. admin clerk, customer service officer. Is the job market really that bad??
I know the main issue is Kelvin’s health and age. But just a nominal $1.5K/mth job as office boy cum clerk 40hrs/week will be much better than adhoc dishwashing where you have no rights, maybe not even any employment letter, and they can simply kick you out without paying your salary as they know you have no resources to fight them.
What Kelvin needs to do is to get over his all-or-nothing expectation for a sales job. The only sales jobs available will be those 100% commission types such as property or insurance, which is not suitable for Kelvin. He needs to capitalise on his strengths such as conversation skills, people skills (customer service), PC literacy (email, internet, Word), presentation skills, office / organisational (paperwork, filing, fax, photocopier, scanning), initiative skills (e.g. calling the right agencies for procedures, finding possible answers on internet for difficult matters etc).
Hi XYZ,
Kelvin has applied for many admin-related jobs but so far he has not being successful.
Maybe his age, health plus his own inhibitions are big deterrences.
Kelvin needs a very understanding employer who knows about his limitations and still willing to hire him.
To expect him to work at the same pace as any normal employee will be asking too much of him.
IS thete any such employer out there?
Gilbert Goh
Hi,
Pls. ask Kevin to provide me with his phone number and Ican contact him.
Regards
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