I just don’t get it…
Why do local employers keep talking down on our own local workers?
Besides being accused of laziness, local workers are also choosy, don’t turn up for interviews and some even don’t attend work when terms are already agreed upon verbally over the phone.
What totally irked me is that they are citing isolated experiences of some bad hats and immediately pronounced that the rest of our Singaporean workers will behave the same.
I actually found it shamefulfor employers to speak so badly of our own people – even though its the truth.
Comparison of local and foreign workers
They also tend to compare our workers with foreign ones and of course sang the world of the latter ones.
I have told them that its unfair to compare local and foreign workers as we are here to stay and unused to working long hours as we have a family to attend to.
Most foreigners are singles and will even camp over night at the office if they have to for their future sake.
Many prefer to work here compared to Cambodia or Vietnam and won’t mind being exploited as they are literally jobless back home.
Some even felt that because they are willing to be exploited by local employers, they could stay longer in their jobs!
However, its true that Singaporeans workers are choosy over distance, pay and even job scope.
Some have even work for just a day and then disappeared without even wanting to collect their pay.
Nevertheless, its unfair to link just one rotten apple and call the rest the same?
Singaporean worker suddenly unproductive?
What happens to the most-productive tag we have for the Singaporean workers just a decade ago? Have they all disappeared overnight?
I remembered my office celebrated that world-best-worker announcement by having a buffet lunch but all this seemed so remote now.
I have written an article citing that Singaporeans workers now work the longest hours but remained the least productive in the world.
Perhaps the influx of unproductive foreign workers have caused our productivity to drop to a negative level since five years ago and show no signs of going up anytime soon.
Many Tuas companies I visited also complained to me that they could not hire Singaporeans because the main reason is distance – even though the pay is at least 20% above market rate.
I have persuaded some Singaporean PMETs to take up any available job offer at Tuas especially if they are jobless for more than a year.
The Tuas district probably needs a better transport infrastructure and sometimes only one bus plies the area frustrating many workers who have to work late at night.
I have a lady PMET who just quit from a job in Tuas because she has to work late every night and seldom left the office earlier than 9pm. She reached home at 10 plus mostly.
I also have the priviledge of visiting some MNC and SME recently and routinely faced the irate accusations from our local employers that our own workers are not hardworking, conscientious and can’t take work pressure.
One MNC even listed down in detail two local staff who resigned after working for less than six months with them.
Both were senior positions and the pay was not an issue.
I was wondering if they have kept a thick file recording the two isolated cases so they could provide proof to MOM that they have tried their best to hire Singaporeans but they could not stay long in the job. 
So now they have to bring in a foreigner to take over the position?
Surely there must be some good capable Singaporean executives who are still working on in the company?
“How do you want us to hire Singaporean workers?” the director retorted in anger when he related the two cases to me.
However, they never want to discuss the resignation rate of foreign workers in their company and the way they reacted when the question was thrown at them suggests that it is also high.
Out of the 1400 staff they hired, only less than 15% are Singaporeans. The foreign legion consists mainly of Filiinos, Indians, PRC Chinese among others.
Why hire foreigner when a local can do the job?
It also broke my heart to see a Filipino receptionist at the helm when Singaporeans could do the same job.
Can’t the company find a Singaporean to do that front desk job?
I literally went home to cry at times after visiting some companies which consist predominantly of young educated foreigners occupying the whole work place.
You can count the number of local Singaporeans on the fingers of one hand for some companies.
Where are the Singaporeans? They must be all gainfully employed but yet I still receive daily emails from jobless PMETs…
Something is not right here.
I am sure that in many work places, Singaporeans remain the minority worker and sometimes they are being bullied by foreigners who form the majority of the work force at our private sector.
To add insult to injury, many local worerks have to take instructions from their foreign superiors.
It is no wonder that many of our fresh graduates prefer to apply for jobs from the civil service as at least they can work together with our own local people.
It takes alot of acceptance and adjustment if you want to click well with foreign workers from different nationalities.
From the feedback I gathered from employers and local executives, they tend to stick together according to nationality and sometimes conflict occurs if there is a operational hiccup.
If they resigned, they also do it together further hampering the operational work flow of a company.
My take is that if companies continue to over-depend on foreigners, they will be in for a rough time as MOM will continue to restrict the hiring of new foreign workers given the public displeasure at the scheme.
Singaporean-first hiring mentality
Moreover, I always believe in a Singaporean-first hiring mentality.
In Australia, employers tend to hire back their own people first before considering hiring foreigners even though they are citizens or PRs.
Call them patriotic or silly but we all know that Aussie workers are not as hardworking as Asians but local Aussie employers will not hesitate to hire their own people first without any reservation.
I have spoken to some of our own local employers on this issue and their attitude really bothers me.
“Its revenue first, Gilbert,” one told me straight in the face.
“To me, they are all workers. I don’t care if they are from Singapore, Malaysia, India, China or Africa. So long the worker is contributing to my bottom line I will hire him.”"
Perhaps, our government’s creation of a economical Singapore Inc has rubbed off on our local employers so much that no one now cares a hoot about who they hire so long the person can do the job.
They are not bothered even if the majority of their work force consists of foreign workers.
To our local employers, the workers are there to help them achieve their bottom line – nothing else.
I remembered vividly the piercing words of a local IT employer with a small strength of ten workers of which eight are foreigners – the incident always brought tears to my eyes whenever I thought of it.
“I only want to hire a Singaporean to make up for the numbers, Gilbert,” he told me frankly over coffee when I visited him in his small office.
He has emailed me asking for resumes of local Singaporeans and accepted my request to visit his office.
”The system is now no longer meritocratic. You can have the best degree from a first class university but cost is everything here.”
When he said those menacing words, my mind flashed back to the hundreds of jobseekers who came to see me for support over the past few years with their well-minted degrees from established universites – both local and foreign.
Of course, to any employer, making enough revenue to last another month or year is important but is there more to it than that?
He told me how employment agents have being pushing workers to him as most foreigners have to pay a fee to them for employment opportunities even before they have any confirmed job placement.
Many foreigners probably are on a 2-week holiday social visa but they are actually on the look out for possible work opportunities.
The easily-available work permits via our S-Pass and EP mean that foreigners can be hired within one or two months upon submission of their documents depending on the urgency of the vacancies.
I am unsure how the equation works out for the IT employer in the end but if employers decide to place revenue above everything else, there will come a time when foreigners will hold the company ransom if they decide to walk out amass.
I have already heard of this happening in one or two companies that I visited.
So what can we do now?
So what can we do to alleviate the current perplexing employment situation?
For one, the Ministry of Manpower needs to tighten up the employment passes further and ensure that employers continue to hire Singaporeans first.
Our dreadful EP system also needs to have a quota system like the S-Pass so that our local PMETs are not entirely displaced by educated younger foreign workers.
The over-supply of foreign workers has adversely affect the employment opportunities of our local workers and severely depress wages as well.
Human resource managers have told local workers looking for jobs to “take it or leave it” as there are long queues of foreign workers waiting to be hired.
Our local employers need to seriously consider hiring local worker if there are vacant position and do not need any niche specialised skills from a foreign talent.
I have seen too many foreigners carrying out the common duties of a receptionist, co ordinator, telephone operator, manager among others.
They are mainly young, eager to please and slightly cheaper than local workers and who can fault our employers from hiring them?
Who allow these workers to flood the country in the first place?
Why not give our jobless 40-50s executives a shot at the job if they don’t mind the same salary and job scope?
Moreover, local workers are here to stay and we have obligations to our family and country.
The foreign workers will only stay on as long as their financial obligations are met. They will leave after that.
The employment situation will only get worse if MOM does not intervene and allows the rot to continue.
Our birth rate will also worsen if local Singaporeans do not see stability at the job front and decide not to give birth due to financial reasons.
Hopefully, this contentious employment pass system is one sacred cow that the Prime Minister is willing to slay for the country.
If not, Singaporeans will not harbour any loyalty to a country that operates like a incoporation in the first place.
Written by: Gilbert Goh
Foreign workers are human beings too. In PRC, USA, Malaysia, Thailand etc, many city folks, degree holders or youngsters wouldn’t take up jobs such as farmer, construction worker, toilet cleaner or waiter if they have a choice. Laziness, choosy, don’t turn up for interviews, disappear after working one day and some even don’t attend work when terms are already agreed upon verbally over the phone are not something uncommon in these countries too.
Employers always like to compare local workers between foreign workers, and complained local workers are lousy workers. So why not lets us ask these directors or managers or HR managers to accept those meagre wages, long working hours, heavy workload jobs which they are offering. I would like to know how many of them will take up the job.
Minimise cost & maximise profit goals are what the employers are after. All those operation mgmt, lean mgmt or 6 sigma subjects taught in school are actually talking about minimise cost & maximise profit. PAP also promote outsourcing. Once outsourcing steps in then wages will be severely depressed. If locals don’t want the jobs then employers will tried to hire foreigners by paying them meagre wages.
S’pore doesn’t has minimum wage policy & there are a lot of loopholes in our employment act. Local employers are too used to hiring foreigners & exploiting workers that they now have a rough time adjusting when MOM started restricting the hiring of new foreign workers.
The loophole in the employment act is done deliberately so that it allow the employers to exploit such loopholes without punishment, since it is politicaly incorrect to openly embrace those pratice.
Good point to that.
Why do local employers talked down on local workers/employees?
Ans. Follow the leaders.
Good point to that too.
What we need is a foreign employee tax. For every foreign employee hired, the company has to be taxed equivalent to the salary of that employee. This will make the cost of hiring foreigners high and cost of hiring Singaporeans cheaper. Don’t forget Singaporean employees need to pay additional 15% CPF as well and their base salary requirement are usually higher. That is why bosses preferred foreigners. All other things are just excuses.
If they had to pay double of what they are paying their employees now, they will think twice to hire foreigners. Cos money is the bottom line.
Another side rule that needs to be tightened is to banned kickbacks by agents. That is, no foreigners are allowed to pay agents to find jobs for them. This prevents foreigners from being exploited of their desperate situation and kill the incentive of agents to push foreigners before Singaporeans.
Question is whether our government has the willpower to implement this or not.
I don’t quite believe that companies located in Tuas are willing to pay extra 20% above market rate for salary. It really depends on your luck, your bargaining power, the industry needs & the company itself.
In S’pore, major industrial areas are usually located at areas like Tuas, Jurong island, Alps ave, Changi cargo complex & Keppel distripark. These are the places where there are seaports & airports. The air over there is bad & transport issue is also one big problem. To avoid traffic congestion, some companies started working at 7am.
Our CPF system is quite troublesome too.
http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/Employers/Gen-Info/cpf-Contri/ContriRates-Sep2011_Aug2012.htm
http://mycpf.cpf.gov.sg/NR/rdonlyres/B2F1F51A-1894-4A52-8259-F8914EB6934C/0/SingaporeCitizen3rdyearSPR_PTENPENSep2011.pdf
Many companies specially for those in security, cleaning, retail, F&B, logistics, manufacturing industries will tried to contribute less by giving meagre basic salary then top it up with all kind of allowances. E.g. Challenger.
These companies felt that no CPF contribution is required for allowances. CPF board doesn’t allow this but these companies don’t care. Cos money is the bottom line. Nothing will be done unless you complain to CPF then they will conduct investigation. MOM & CPF don’t check on the employment contracts. MOM allows both employer & employee to negotiate the terms & conditions themselves, so employees are always at the losing end.
Both employees & employers have to contributed high CPF % rate. I feel that the contribution rate by both employees & employers should be review. Our money in CPF accounts are controlled by gov, we have limited access to use it.
In my field of work, locals cost more but are lazy and uncooperative. They prefer to talk their way out of work. You can find them chit chatting or smoking most of the time. Some frequently come late or cheat on OT. They don’t respect immediate superiors but prefer to curry favour with the upper management to retain their jobs.
As a middle manager, I have to do the work of my local subordinates as well. I cannot transfer them because they have the support of upper management. If I ever have the chance to select my own team, you can bet that I will give foreigners priority. They may be incompetent with poor English skills but at least they can finish 70% of the tasks that I assign. As for my local subordinates, I would have to cajole them to do their well paid jobs and they would only finish 30%.
Which field are you in? What company are you in?
I believe these bad examples of bad local workers are not the norm in the workplace. There are just a few rotten apples in a basket full of good apples.
The employers should also do some soul-searching on whether the locals are paid fairly and treated fairly as a fellow human being instead of being a faceless and voiceless slave. I am sure there are many good locals out there who are willing to work much harder to show their gratitude to those few employers who have a heart.
However, good employers are a rare breed nowadays. Many superiors like to command their subordinates and treat them as robots to complete endless tasks in the shortest possible time.
If the employers are so good, why is the turnover rate so high in so many offices?
Dear Gilbert Goh
Do not despair nor feel sad. We must accept the fact that most of our employers are pampered into 3rd world mentality, and we have to thank this for our “tripartite” systems in Singapore. Meritocracy based on performance and qualification no longer exist in Singapore when we have abundant of cheap foreigners for pluck. This, we have to “thanks” PAP for the current situation.
Let me, as once a veteran job seekers, relate what actually happened based on the above story. I do believe people work for a day and dissappear or never turn up for interview or even worked briefly within short period of times. There are valid soul-searching reasons:
1) I came across employers whose advertised job description deferred from real expectation during the interview or after the candidates have already joined the organization only to discover they have been short-changed by the boss.
2) Any best candidate will not perform well in company full of politics and boss who cannot lead nor receptive to productive changes. 3-6 months are enough period for new candidate to decide whether that was what they wanted as life-time career. Thus employers cannot demand an explanation in this situation. The new CEO/chairman of NTUC have said that employees are not to blame if employers don’t buck up their effort.to meet canddiate’s expectations.
3) Inexperienced or bossy Interviwers, often than not, was skeptical and harsh when candidates attended their first interview with resume laid before them. Once bitten twice shy, the candidate if shortlisted will have reservation whether they want to work in such authoritative environment. Note must be taken Singapore is a stressful society, nowadays people thrive in a more conducive human-relationship environment because Singaporeans have had enough living in an iron-fist country. They hope their 2nd-home (workplace) do not add to their existing stressful life..
4) Some candidate were under duress when they went thru commission driven recruit agency who sometimes “force” them to accept job which they didn’t like based on some of the factors discussed here. There are candidates who succumb to such pressure and likely to leave agent’s recommended co when next suitable job comes along. Employers will cry foul but who started it in the first place?
5) Candidate were tired of applying several repeating jobs thru the job portals until they no longer feel the motivation to see the next interviewer or click on the website jobs ads. As much as employer felt exhausted, candidate felt the worse for traveling around under sun and rain to fill not just pages of applicaton formsl but QUESTIONAIRS as well. End of the day,
6) I need to repeat that many inexperienced or wannabe professed HR practitioners did not live up to their name during the interview processes namely:
• failed to feel the aspiration of candidates
• clueless about the technicalitites of candidates work experiences
• not forthcoming with information for candidate to make sound decision
• dragging their feet for weeks to shortlist potential candidates
• Skeptical and sarcastic – discrimination noted between-the-words spoken by interviewer
• Too judgemental about candidate experience/personalities when interviewer hardly know the candidates well enough.
• Eager to force their views on interviewee.
• Unfriendly and unprofessional. Came across once where interviewer was hiding behind a PC cam while she had her face concealed in a different room. Was she too ugly to come out and face the world? There was no personal touch and it looks quite robotic in the interview method.
• Interviewers appeared emotional and quick to jump on candidate and not objective during interview process. It appears like teacher talking down on
student or should I say very emperor-like and demanding.
• Too eager to bring in candidate to “save life” in the company and resorted to lies. Not offering any protection once the candidate joined the company. End
of the day, candidates fully inherited the problems while the management kept shun full responsibilities. If candidate cannot solve the inherited problems, he was made to face consequence not the fault of his and
most of the time pressurized to get thing solved ‘within a short span of time” on problems accumulated for years due to management complacency or negligence.
• Tendency to put candidate down instantly using age, pay and qualifications to justify a depressing wages even when the candidate has good alibi via past testimonials and references.
• Getting a junior interviewee to interview a senior position.
• Employer dragging their feet to get replacement, new applicant view short handover timing a taboo for job continuation. I came across companies who start recruiting new staff when the existing staff has only one week left to serve his/her notice.
• Insecured interviewers – not sure what to ask and too profunctory by reading thru a list of questionairs on hand.
• This is the most popular – expecting the impossible from candidate. Analogically speaking, when you put up a job description expecting candidate to lift a pebble. Candidate, who can lift a rock,will apply for the post immediately, with extra comfort allowance. At the interview, employers tend to “frighten” candidate by telling them they must learn to lift a MOUNTAIN after joining the company. It can be quite pissed and time-wasters when candidate learned the truth thereafter.
• Interviewers who enjoyed taking time to look out for applicants. Not that they can’t find a suitable candidates, nobody can tell what lies beneath those oft repeated vacancies appearing 365 days in the job market. It appears there is no urgency to recruit for the company who put up those advertisements.
• Employers expect 100% job description to be met. People who met 90% of job critierias may not want to apply or being turned away. The worse company will place a clause stating those who failed all the critieras met NEED NOT APPLY, like they were living in a perfect world and look for 100% perfect candidate.
• Some recruiters were very quarrelsome when they fail to get what they wanted from candidates. One such examples when recruiters failed to understand the needs of applicants, gave employers and candidate wrong or incomplete information resulted in interview embarrassment. Embarassment also occurred when recruit agency send application to their secret clients which the candidate have either previously rejected or not shortlisted from the the same company. As usual, recruit agency tend to be very philosophical but failed to understand the technicalities of jobs to match candidates aspirations with the right employers. It was like, asking a philosopher to find a suitable surgeon for a hospital.
• Recruitment agency tend to make repeated questions that were already laid down clearly on candidate’s resume – eg reason for leaving past jobs, last drawn, expected salary, candidate previous jobscopes and than cut the candidate off by promising to return call without a clue for the candidate on what was to be expected. Many, don’t bother to return call or make a courtesy to explain reason for abrupt rejection. I believe some of these agents will be blacklisted by good candidates eventually.
• Boss who smoke in his room and led interviewee into it , certainly do not respect the health of his workers.
• Companies which insist applications must be completed via their inhouse website that kept crashing down or couldn’t match candidate’s PC configurations is a total determent.
• Certain recruit agencies tend to advertise “a fish” but force candidate to accept “a prawn” again putting candidate in difficult spot of rejection.
• Boss deliberately kept door opened during interview while his staffs were sitting nearby. Where is confidentiality and privacy?
• Firm who has 80% of their staff of same
nationalities is hardly going to impress candidates when they walked into the office. It is best kept interview short as the chance of you shorlisted is dim if you felt you are walking into a different country and more so if the interviewer came from the same nationality. If interviwer is local, there might be slight hope but keep your optimistism low.
• Unless it is a very highly paid role, any interview beyond 3-rounds is likely to strain candidate of his energy and eventually if he is not short-listed you are going to disappoint him with great amount of his energy and time taken, transport cost could be saved from such inconveniences if candidates are living on his savings..
• Interviewer who was too harsh and threatening when candidate was forthcoming with what he can or cannot achieve under certain circumstances often met with scorn. Mutual frank discussion often turned into angst by the boss that they are not getting value for money form this candidate. There is no need for an apparent expression of disgust. Polite and honesty is the best way to end an interview without leaving a bitter taste after leaving the interview room. Don’t forget, candidate today may become your client tomorrow.
• Interviewer often expect candidate to provide immediate answer on the spot for an answer to join the firm. Such is the “threat” I often encountered from boss who tell me “it is either now or never”. Let candidate have a day or two to consider before making rash decision. I have interviewer who rejected my application immediately when my request for a day to consider was turned down. The amazing part is, the same company will recycle his job ads and continue the vicious cycle of tiresome staff hunt for months and re-processing the interview. I would have joined the company if the boss is understanding and save him from the trouble, but the option was his to make.
• Humble, objectivity, flexibility, friendliness, constructive, fairness, truthful considerate, understanding, stability, passionate, assurance are often lacking from some of these interviewers. The truth is, interviewers are the window to any organization where potential candidate might eventually work with for long goal. If interviewers cannot pass a simple human test as mentioned in all the above pointers, candidates will certainly fail these organisations eventually.
7) However let me make it very clear that not all employers or recruitment agencies are unprofessional. There are good and professional ones around, and they may not necessary came from big or reputable agencies. On the same note, there are also employees who are difficult to handle and who brought with them politics from their previous companies..
8) End of the day, there must be a good start somewhere whether it came from employer or employees and each reciprocate each other like a lover longing for a lasting and fruitful relationship. Divorce is bound to happen but if we don’t work towards a harmonious working environment (perfect or imperfect that might be), than living with each other is a pain and productivity will be compromised.. Which living creatures do not want love and respect?. Even a couple of our ministers were crying about lack of dignity or lifestyle compromised if they are not paid well to serve. If high flyers are already mournful about being short-changed, what about lesser average people like us? You get the drift.
9) Now, those complaining employers, which category were you from all of the above before you start putting Singaporeans down.
10) Anyone here agree? please Kee Chiu!
Enjoyed your long winded, but enlightening/entertaining experiences!
In lay man term, HR practitioner have 2 things to do.
Screening = HR will base on how the candidate sell in their resume that is related to job description that the company have advertise such as qualification, experiences & etc.
Background verification = It depend on organization. Organization like SAF have all the time to recruit & onboard the new employee. That is the reason why they will do Background verification first before they select suitable resume for Hiring Manager to choice before arranging an interview. However, almost all organization do not have time to recruit & onboard the new employee because they urgently need manpower. In this case, after the Hiring Manager interview & selected the candidate then HR will perform Background verification.
Apart from these 2 things HR perform, you mention about interview. HR will only interested in your current salary, expected salary, noticed period & whatever information is needed such as application form. HR will not really bother about your working experiences and going into details like technical skill because they are not train. If they are train, they will not be a HR but an be Engineer & etc. So this is the reason why the technical part like working experiences will be interview by Hiring Manager.
So let be fair to HR practitioner.
Dear Gilbert,
You’re so dramatic. “Literally went home to cry”? Why then you must be crying every day. You ask can’t Singaporeans do the front desk job, the answer is yes. They can. But they don’t want to. Trust me when I say most of your people who are capable of working at front desk (young, English speaking locals) DON’T want to work at such jobs. Due to low pay, low recognition. Most of the time, if you find a Singaporean at a front desk/reception/concierge, most of them are part timers. They don’t work those jobs as full-times. Employers talk down on them because they look down on those jobs. So if you’re crying because capable locals are not accepting jobs that they think are too low for them, then good luck and keep on crying every day.
Are you saying that employers are right to despise people doing low level jobs? It is more of the attitude of high level people towards such low level people that makes people shun such jobs. Pay is usually a not a most important criteria, no doubt that financial stability is very crucial to survival. It is the whole package- the rapport of the people working there, the work values we have and the matching of our personalities etc.
Please don’t see only the half picture. It reflects very badly on your knowledge.
Many management executives & managers that i have seen are in their 40s – 50s, some could be already in their 60s.
Their mindset & management method are quite old school type. They always looking out to hire someone who they feel is obedient, hardworking & willing to accept low wage. Some of these old school management are great pretenders & taichi masters. They also pretend to be busy & push all the work to others, especially to those junior ranks. They like to tell you they are busy so pls help out or they are giving you a chance to earn new things. Who would like to work with or under these type of people, especially those generation X, Y, Z.
Of course, there are some young management staff who are great pretenders & taichi masters too but not so commonly seen. However, i did came across some when i was working in ntuc foodfare years ago.
I can resonate with your compassion for fellow unemployed Singaporeans. Yeah, even “see” the tears of compassion shed for them unlike the foreigner that tell you to keep “crying”.
“To our local employers, the workers are there to help them achieve their bottom line – nothing else.” Ditto for the ruling PAP government especially the Minister of MOM and the PM. To them, citizens and foreigners are just statistics. If they have ruled with compassion for fellow Singaporeans, we’ll have quota for PR, EP and PEP pass holders to protect Singaporeans! But no, they just don’t want to care for the locals that are rooted here and give them a priority in their homeland by virtue of citizens of the land. They rather citizens be crowded-out by influx of foreigners through FTAs, shallow interpretation of unemployment figure, etc.
It’s beginning to dawn on me that this website is basically an outlet for those people who lost their jobs to more capable candidates and just want a forum to bitch about it rather then DO something about it. So congratulations Gilbert, for being the helmsman of your little therapy group. Good luck finding jobs by bitching here and doing nothing to improve your situation. While you all whine here, the capable ones will be out there getting employed and making themselves useful to society.
Simon, u sound like a person with without compassion to the poor & jobless.
Are u a PR, foreigner or some top management in some companies?
@jj@39: For your information, I myself am also still seeking employment. I would not say my family is rich, we do just nice. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that I look down on poor families or have no compassion. During my NS days, I personally helped to tutor some of my camp mates who have not completed their education for various reasons (didnt study seriously when young, family problems at home etc). And I did it for free without thought of any rewards. Do you know why? Because I like helping people who want to help themselves, not those who want to just complain and blame others but sit and do nothing. These are the people I am aiming my comments at. Not the poor and unfortunates. So don’t presume to tell me what kind of a person you think I am.
How do you know people just only knew how to complain and blame others but sit & do nothing?
Pls don’t condemed this website & Gilbert.
So what can you suggest to help us to improve our situation? Are you an elitist who have never fail/ fall before? Things are not as simple as you think. Pay is usually not the only factor that makes people resign. Many readers here either have their contracts terminated prematurely or got retrenched when old. There are also many other underlying issues such as office politics etc.
Maybe you have never encounter such misfortunes and lack the insight to understand our plight. Are you implying that everyone should accept a low level job even if it is not enough to meet the high costs of living? Are you saying that we should be living in debt for the rest of our lives? I am not talking about buying a car or bungalow here, but buying a small and cosy HDB flat, instead of renting from HDB.
Good when I see more shit like this happening in s’pore. Coz it just accelerates the end-game. Just go with the flow — am profiting and making good money from the open-legs PAP regime. But have put in place plans to profit also when s’pore goes to hell and people start killing each other on the streets.
@J Y : I don’t attempt to tell anyone what kind of salary they should be accepting. Its entirely up to them. What I’m saying to GILBERT is that if locals don’t want to accept these jobs and pay scale but someone else accepts it, whats he got to cry about? Crying because others are content with the low pay that locals don’t want? Then too bad, let him cry till he die. Because the fact is that if you don’t accept the job, there’s always someone who will. So if that person accepts it and you don’t he should really stop blaming the person who can make do with lower pay. I’m talking about Gilbert’s lack of common sense and his “blame-everyone-else-except-yourself” speeches.
Can’t agree with your view, just because someone can accept abuse, means others have to?
ANYWAY, why is it that government be endorsing such exploitative employment situations by opening the floodgate of cheap labours for the companies to exploit? Granted someone’s meat can be other one’s poison, and someone’s low pay can be other one’s opportunity of a lifetime.
If it is not the government’s job to ensure citizen live a decent life (not excusing irresponsible living, just for genuinely decent people) with decent enough pay, than there is absolutely NO USE for such a government in the life of THAT citizen.
You label it as abuse but that is from a high and mighty person’s point of view..and the government is not to blame for opening the floodgate..everyone says cheap labour, cheap labour like as if all these foreign talents are working for a few hundred dollars a month..just because they take a few hundred dollars LESSER then u doesnt make them “cheap” labour..its not like any of them are settling for a few hundred for a job that should be paid a few thousand..they just take a slightly lower pay then u..not such a drastic difference..they’re not stupid u know..if they come here and have qualifications, why would they accept something too low??unless ur talking about construction workers..thats a different story altogether..i don’t see any locals wanting to be construction workers..for those jobs requiring diploma or degree and above, the pay they are accepting is not that different from u ppl..just a little less..although a little less from 1 employee is not much difference to the company..a little of a lot of employees becomes a lot..do the math..if u guys can accept a slightly lower pay of a few hundred less, you’d have a fighting chance as well..but according to some of u, u have “expensive living costs”..i agree..those weekly visits to the bars/clubs regularly eating at expensive places do add up quite a lot doesn’t it..hmmm i wonder if its the FTs fault that u have such expenses..because at the end of the month, FTs also pay for rent, much as u pay installment for ur flats, they also pay same amount for transport..only difference is they are willing to scrimp and save more, while u ppl splash out extravagantly..thats the problem..think about it real hard
Simon, bcoz of people that have mindset like you, that is why exploitation is still commonly found in S’pore. Not only locals, even the foreigners are also being exploited too.
Simon, a few hundred dollars less makes a great different. I guess you have never been shortcharged before. U think only S’poreans lived extravagantly & only the FT scrimped and saved. U are wrong.
Construction workers in developed countries are quite wellpaid unlike in S’pore. That is one of the major reasons why few locals are interested in construction.
Transitioning is forumn for jobless & poor to share their views & seek help. But u seems to hate it. It is hard to believe that you are really a jobless & poor S’porean.
The working environment was totally sucks for the last 8 years.
I was burnt-out after working for my current company for 1 year and 4 months. I have been working for close to 20 years and the past was never this bad. I felt dead beat everyday I reached home. I had to work very often till 8 to 9pm on a Saturday deep in Tuas with no dinner until 10pm. My boss don’t give a damn, all he cares is that we complete the job no matter how long it takes.
More than 10 years ago, I often get good reviews for my performance. But now, I work harder, longer hours handling more jobs, but my current boss still feels that it is not enough.
My foreign colleagues are not handling more duties than me, in fact on the number of cases I handled, I am alway 10% higher than my other colleagues. I am not saying my foreign colleagues are lousy, as a matter of fact, they are pretty hardworking. They are as badly exploited as I am by the boss.
Maybe as I Sinkie, I tried to prove that we are not ‘useless’ as often defined by many local employers. However, I really wondered how long can I work under such conditions. All my foreign colleagues are not going to continue their contract when it expire, citing the exploitation that they are getting for the non-renewal. In fact, from what I know, non of the foreigners who had worked in my company had renewed their contracts.
All my foreign colleauges will go when their contracts expire and my boss can easily get another batch for him to exploit, But where can we Sinkies go? Going from one shit hole to another shit hole?
The real reason for many employers who want to employ foreigners is for them to exploit. As foreigners have a contract, they cannot just leave even if they are not happy.
I truly hoped that assholes like my boss will one day failed in their business and need to look for a job like us. I hoped that they will be told by other employers that they is ‘useless’ like what they like to say about Sinkie employees. Hope that he will be exploited just like how they had exploited us. Truly hoped that they will have a taste of their own medicine.
However, I know that this bastard will not remorse for what he did because he don’t think that he is exploiting anybody. On the contrary, he kept saying that he was a very reasonable and kind employer and kept saying that all those who had left the company were ‘ungrateful’.
Employers had acquired their taste of exploition and they will not want to give it up. So they are always chanting that there are not enough workers and they need to employ foreigners!
This is situation here in Singapore, because 99% of the employers thinks this way and the biggest culprits are the farking GLCs!
However, this would not have happened if not because of that bastard son of that equally bastard old man and their gang of dogs and cronies!
Exploitation….The boss will tell Sporeans staff to train the F/Ts and Sporeans are so loyal that they teach them 100% and when theres a downsize the Sporeans workers are the first one to be given the pink slip. Once I asked a F/T to train me on an equipment….he gave me the equipment manual. As a survivor, I managed to train myself via the manual. I wonder is this how they protect their job?
Singaporean firms are allowed in our business climate to exploit workers. The SMEs especially are allowed to underpay FTs and to blackmail them into accepting lesser pay than locals. Since they are dependent on the firms to have their EP or S-pass.
By taking away foreigners’ rights, it also takes away our competing value!
Since there is no effective union in Singapore, employer is king and PAP uses MAS and all the governmental systems to allow that. Why? So that the property here can rise and continue the ponzi demography that is Singapore. Oh, and did I forget to add that the government owns 80% of Singapore’s land and is reclaiming more?
Employers are given too much leeway in hiring foreigners and getting them cheap. In other countries like Europe or America it is so much much harder to get approval to work if you are foreigner. We are really opening our arms so wide that we can’t handle this anymore.
Look at the MRT. Look at our jobs (gone). Look at the faces of our friends and family – all hissing dissing and complaining — not happy, depressed but still have to survive and suck it all up
To put it all together, we are also not allowed to riot strike or to create public demonstrations because of the Internal Security Act which was used to arrest people without trial (human riots violation?). Since we are not able to voice it out effectively, no union could reasonably form. Wow, a vicious cycle —> less and less pay
Singaporeans in private sector will always be underpaid compared to government sector. This is really cronyism.
One very serious problem with our employers here, many of them are poor management.
That why local talent all run away..