Having the occasional opportunity to take off and stay abroad for a few weeks annually during the past few years, many friends have marvelled at my distinct priviledge – something that is not enjoyed by many Singaporeans back home.
Most Singaporean PMETs enjoy a leave forecast of less than 20 days per annum and after saving a few days for emergency use, there is often less than 10 leave days’ balance to plan for a holiday abroad with the family.
We all know how planned holidays work – you go to the airport, join a tour group which will rush you through the itinerary and finally you return home more tired than before you go on the trip.
Some even need to take a few days off to rest after their holiday!
I have long forsaken the planned tour with our holiday agencies as I have always slipped away to be on my own when we took up tour packages that for the past decade we would only buy air tickets and romp on our own.
When I was working with office colleagues few years back, we all have to schedule our holidays during the December period so that someone is at the office.
I always felt that working in the office during December is quite relaxing as everybody works slowly and the mood is fabulous during the festive Christmas season.
How I wished every month is like December in the whole working calender.
Our Singaporean PMETs are mostly over-worked and more critically have nowhere to go for a recharge.
Some also prefer to stay at home during the weekend to recharge over a game at the computer or simply sleep in.
The maddening crowd at our shopping malls during weekend also deters many from stepping out of their homes.
I have known of many Singaporeans travelling across to JB for the weekend rendevous with their family or nearby seaside resort in Bintan for rejuvenation especially if there are the long weekend holidays stretching from Friday to Sunday.
Here in Sydney, people travel inter-state or drive to the countryside to camp and hang out. It is a good time for refreshing and recharging before the next week starts.
The change in environment from city to countryside living can be refreshing and the mood changes when one is out in the open fields and the welcomed fresh air.
Most Friday afternoon, Aussie executives would also hang out in pubs for networking sessions for the past few decades.
The office will be half-empty as Aussies drink pints of beer hanging out together with other blokes on most Friday afternoon after lunch.
I have heard that it is also a fantastic time for networking with others from similar industry.
Of course, those who went for regular pints are mostly managers or executives with marketing and sales job portfolio.
Many stressed out executives also use such time to relax after a hard week at the work place.
In Singapore, people work round the clock from 9pm to 7pm mostly and some even bring their work home.
We probably may have the highest number of executives working 60-hours work week in a first world country economy!
There is hardly any worthwhile places to go and recharge here except to chill out over beer on a Friday night-out.
I saw heaps of young people hanging out at Clarke Quay drink joints on Friday nights and binge drinking seems to be the norm now.
Many friends I know also jog to destress or join a health club to sweat out the negative vibes.
Its a cheaper way to run off those stressful knots in the muscles than binge drinking and many people swear that it is a valuable destressing technique.
Its a wonderful way to lose some e weight and have a solid physique if you also do the weights.
I have being jogging for the past 25 years thrice a week religiously and it has been my best destressing habit so far.
My work entails listening to alot of sad stories from my clients and my need for destressing is immense.
I also read alot and write out my thoughts so that I have an outlet avenue to vet off negative energy.
Those who are married are better off as they have someone to speak to after they reach home.
Of course, it will be disastrous if your partner is someone whom you dread to go home to.
That is probably why many husbands seek pleasure outside when their marriages hit the rock.
Studies have shown that men do not mainly look for laision outside of marriage due to sexual reason but its more of a emotional need that they seek a connection with.
When I was younger, I used to go the east coast beach on Saturday afternoon after my half day work to swim and cycle till late afternoon.
It was a time for me to rest, relax and recharge after working hard for 5 1/2 days at work.
I visited the beach for a good solid 5 years before I abandoned my weekly time-out as my girlfriend then was not keen to go under the sun on a hot Saturday afternoon.
I found the beach theraupetic and listening to the sea waves beating upon the shore gave me a soothing feeling and it was my way of giving myself a treat after working so hard for the whole week.
Nowadays, the congestion at the east coast beach is so bad that I have not step foot on my favourite beachfor the past ten years!
In crowded Singapore whereby any ounce of space is used for commercial reason, there is hardly any place left for our busy executives to rest and relax.
I used to find the Marina Bay a fantastic place to chill out and relax but now it is been occupied by commercial buildings and the integrated resort.
Many of us took short trips abroad either in JB or Bintan to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city.
However, you need to prepare for the short overseas trip and sometimes it is difficult to go away over night especially if you have dependent family members staying at home with you.
Stressed out Singaporeans executives need to go off to relax on a regular basis so that they can be recharged to fight for another week at work.
Our chronic work schedule has also put some executives into the psychatrist office as they need to seek medical assistance to resolve emotional stressors.
We all handle stresses differently and there will always be some who will need the support of counsellors and medical doctors and there is nothing wrong with that.
Transitioning has seen some executives who have quit from their jobs after they were stressed out by the work load and our infamous office politics at the offices.
Some have in fact seeked counselling support for the emotional stresses experienced at work.
I have told them that if they dread going to work for a few months, it is time to look around and send in their resignation letter.
Unfortunately, there is insufficient study done on how our PMETs are being adversely affected by work stress.
Companies also lack competent human resource managers who could provide counselling to their staff afefcted by work stress.
By the time the HR personnel spoke to the executives, many have already made up their mind to quit.
As Singapore tries to fill up our country with 6 million people, it is also timely to re-look at the shortage of recreation places in our country.
There are definitely insufficient parks and recreation facilities for our population to have fun and exercise.
I hope that more Punggol parks can be set up as its a wonderful place for people to walk. jog, cycle and roller blade.
I jog there at least twice a week and it is definitely a place of recreation and relaxation.
There will always be work stress especially in a first world economy power like ours but the population must have sufficent places to go to for recharging and destressing.
If not, we will continue to see many Singaporeans seeking better work life balance abroad.
Around 200, 000 Singaporeans are now working and living abroad and the number seems to be creeping up steadily…
Our government needs to tackle the chronic work life imbalance head on here come up with viable solutions or else a brain drain seems imminent.
Written by: Gilbert Goh
yes i agree. my wife works in a consulting firm as an associate. her boss, one of the partners, expects all associates and above (minus the printing ladies and receptionists), to do OT everyday and come back to work on weekends too. in fact the partner routine walks around the office cublicles after dinner and on weekends presumably to find out how many employees have worked beyond office hours.
my wife believes the results are dismal. consequently her associate director relays to his team that the partner has sent an email to all supervising officers and heads to “manage their manpower resources tighter” and ensure “that team members are challenged with sufficient projects and duties”.
my NS buddy who is a teacher fares worse. the teachers in his school, a government neighbourhood secondary, is effectively given only 1 week break during the June holidays. as expected the more vocal teachers spoke up on this and the principal’s reply was that they can postpone their own holiday plans to december instead.
It is not just the PMET that are overworked & have nowwhere or time to destress n relax. Even those non- PMET are also overworked & have nowwhere or time to destress n relax too.
MOM regulation stated that employees shouldn’t work more than 12hr per day; OT money must be paid if the employees work OT or on PH. But MOM regulation also stated employers & employees are allow to negotiate the terms n condition themselves. Like this, how many employers will not try to exploit the employees? Working 12hr per day is damn too long working hours.
Some companies also don’t pay OT money when employees work OT or on PH. E.g Watsons. If you work OT or on PH, you are only given offdays but can you easily go for off when there is already a shortage of manpower in the shop?
Some companies will expect employee to work on irregular hours. When you need to take a taxi to reach the site or workplace, they said you cannot claim reimbursement for taxi fare. You want to take taxi, you pay your own taxi fare. E.g. Lovethatbag.
If no OT money paid after working OT or on PH, then how can the employees earn more money? I think the poors is likely to be remain as poors forever.
Many PMET also don’t entitled for OT money in their salary scheme. Managers or bosses can dump all the work to them & expect them to finish fast n accurate. If you are newbie, they tell you they are giving you a chance to learn & this is part of the learning process. If you are a oldbird, they tell you all must put in effort to help each other to clear the work or this is also part of the job scope. E.g. Nova shipping & logistics, YCH.
In S’pore, is it sometimes very difficult to have work-family balance.
In Singapore, if you have a degree and you want to climb up the ladder, you would have to work OT. No one I know of who has a degree and is doing well in Singapore does not work OT. Its a norm but count it as a blessing, my friends in the accounting industry and law industry have it worst, working easily more than 15 hrs a day. On the other hand, I have a friend who has the same degree as me but takes back half my salary as he is content with a 8-5pm job which honestly does not take a degree holder to do. It really depends on the person and how ambitious he/she is.
If you have a degree and you want to climb up the ladder, you would have to work OT, that’s fine. But sometime whether you have degree or not & even if you got no wish to climb up the ladder, if your manager or boss wants you to work OT. They usually expect you to accept it.
Some don’t want you work OT but they expect you to finish all the assigned work within the normal working hours. If you can’t finish it & you stay back for OT. They will label you as slow n inefficient. You better bring the work back home to do.
I do hear that ppl working in the accounting industry and law industry worked very long hours. But the pay seems well but on the other hand, turnover rate is high too. That’s what i have heard from NUS accounting student.
For blue collar workers & non-PME, their work is usually long working hours, low pay. Even if they work fast n efficient, what kind of better treatment can they get?
After reading from the “feedbacks” from the ppl who posted here. It is very confirm that there is NO work-life balance at all in SG.
It seems we are going to be like this forever and we are indeed a living “robot” in this highly industrialize nation, or what the story telling us as Animal Farms.
I agree Gilbert. I dread going out. The train packed all the time. I even took fotos of the train on a monday at 1030pm and it was packed! Please don’t fill our country with 6 million people. =(
There is hardly any work-life balance in Spore. Generally speaking, the working hours here are long and the pace of life is crazy. I can understand why an average household aims for a holiday every year as that’s the way to regulate themselves. With the curent congestion everywhere, the simple pleasures of sitting in a cafe to read a book/net surfing or strolling by some parks or beach were no longer there. When you see hordes of people everywhere, it robbed away any sense of tranquility. The severe lack of personal space here in sg is driving one mad. I rather trade in 1 GDP point for a less crowded nation that keeps the sanity of mind.
Sigh. PAP is so pro-business n pro-employer that even MOM has overtime exemption policy to let employers make employees work OT; slog more than 12hr per day.
“Employers that require their employees to work more than 72 hours of overtime in a month are required under section 38 of the Employment Act, to apply for overtime exemption from the Ministry of Manpower.”
Paid employees low basic wage but want them to slog with long working hours in order to earn more money. This is really exploitation.
No minimum wage policy for employees; allows employers to make employees slog. No wonder many ppl can’t save enough money for retirement; have to work many OT to earn a bit more money to paid the bills. Like this how to have work-life balance?
With minimum wage policy, it not only protect S’poreans, it will also protect foreign workers too. But even does implement minimum wage policy, what is the ideal hourly rate should be? Don’t tell me it shall be $5 per hour or less. Don’t learn from mcdonald’s.
Fellows Sg have not figure out what is
Voters cleansing
Let alone no jobs or overtime work
Leave overseas to rebuild while you can
40 years ago, my peers make fun of me because
I was born with a disorder, I managed tO rectify through
Surgery in London 30 years ago, I managed to
Get my UK & Aust. degrees,lived in few western countries
I am sure local old & young doctors will also be replaced
By foreign doctors, hahaha
And married a foreigner which My peers will probably
Look down on me 15 years ago
Hahahaha
The govt has done me justice to all those Sg
Who are arrogant!
For those who are not self-centred, prove yourselves
To survive !
Born & bred Sg or what your forefathers did
Build in Sg are not relevant to the govt to remain
In power!
There are already new citizens in the past 10 years
Being replaced by EP and SP and the process
Will be repeated
Signed off
Sg living oveseas