Our government is trying to bring in at least 20,000 new citizens each year in the hope of arresting the low birth rate here.

Transitioning is carrying out a qualitative survey on the views of local Singaporeans towards this contentious move and will post the survey response periodically on this blog.

 _______________

Transitioning(T): First of all, thanks Jason for helping us with this online interview, can you state your age, marital status, educational qualifications and work experience?

Jason (J): 41 years old, married, tertiary educated, 20 years of work experience.

T: Do you agree with the government’s stand to bring in 20,000 new citizens each year to stem the current low birth rate here? Why so?

J: I disagree with the  need to fix a quota as to how many foreigners the government can or would bring in to Singapore. However, I felt the government can impose more legislation to create better or compulsory work life balances thus in the long run increase the marriage or birth rates.

T: What do you think the government can do alternatively instead of bringing in fresh foreign citizens to beef up the population?

J: Create more legislation for work life balances and more incentives for parents to give more flexibilities and conveniences in bringing up a child despite both parents having to juggle a career. More child care facilities and also promote more pro-family corporate practices  e.g. making 5-day work week mandatory for executive  positions or even as much for blue-collared positions too.

T: Many Singaporeans have cry foul with the ease foreigners has in attaining permanent resident status and then citizenship later on, what are some of the  measures you  hope to see so that the immigration processing can be further tightened up?

J: Foreigners should only be given PR status if they have work in Singapore for X number of years and have been given a good testimonial by their employers or peers. As for citizenship, they must clock certain hours of volunteering in helping needy Singaporeans or at least justified with their notable contributions to fellow Singaporeans or the nation in order to be seriously considered for citizenship. These criteria should be non-monetary in nature.

T: Many netizens have also commented that bringing in large numbers of foreign citizens is one of the sinister plot of the government to convert them into loyal voters for the next general election in 2016, do you agree with this statement? Why so?

J: I disagree as there is no substantial proof to this saying and these foreigners turned Singapore citizens are dumb. So if Singaporeans felt being oppressed by the incumbent government, sooner or later these new citizens will feel the same way as in their home countries they are also potentially more politically liberal or verbal.

T:  Our government has being asking Singaporeans to accept and help foreigners assimilate into our culture, do you think this is happening now? What are some of the things you hope to see plan out with regard to social integration programmes?

J: It’s the natural thing to do as Singapore is a melting pot of cultures, religions, races, beliefs, nationalities etc etc. So just like our old kampong days where we welcome anyone that chose to reside there, now in the bigger landscape, it should also be the same. As long as everyone gives each other their mutual respect as human beings.

 T: On a personal level, how are you affected by the influx of foreigners into our midst and what is the maximum number of foreigners you want to see living in our country at any one time?

J: Just like any other Singaporean, I’m also not spared by the influx of foreigners however we must take such changes in our strides. In terms of the workforce, the government can and should implement better legislation to level the competition and eliminate discrimination by employers that are out to reduce manpower costs to improve their bottomline. It needs not be a full-fledged employment protectionism policy but a sufficient safeguard. Singaporeans on the other hand should asked themselves if they have been too sheltered since the 1990’s so much so that they have forgotten how to be competitive despite the home ground advantage?

T: Many people have commented that our government should do more to help our young couples give birth given the chronic work stress and high cost of living here, do you agree with this? Why so?

J: Yes, I certainly agree. But young workers have also themselves to blame as they aspire for the 4 or 5 Cs in life thus they go all out to win the hearts and minds of their bosses by working long hours therefore it soon became a societal norm or practice. Young workers should learn to say no to their bosses and also bite only the amount that they can chew comfortably and not sacrifice their family time or work life balances. Many are over confident of keeping in touch with family and friends through social media or technology. I don’t see my staff as productive or efficient if they work OT daily rather I find them lack time management skills. Also I frown on people who practices reply to every single emails on the go through their smartphones, anytime, anywhere. The biggest excuse on everybody’s mind is “I don’t have enough time” which is very lame.

T: What are some of the other areas you want our government to look into in the area of birth issue?

J: More incentives to give birth can be in terms of infrastructures like child care centres, paternity leaves, compulsory 5 day work week, greater health care subsidies, etc.

T: lastly, do you believe that our country is in one of the worse post-war period now and that the next few years will be tough for Singaporeans given the intense competition for employment due to the huge foreign influx and fight for physical space?

J:  I agree as even if the government were to implement new measures to alleviate the problem, it will still take at least 5 – 10 years for things to normalise or be accepted by all. In fact, it’s not just about the government taking action to  arrest the deteriorating  current birth situation  but rather also fellow Singaporeans taking ownership and stepping up to chip in and putting in their effort to contribute as one nation.

Thank you and end of interview.

Hi Gilbert,

I WAS encouraged after reading last Saturday’s series of articles (‘Left turn at 50′). It showed that many people can make life-changing decisions during the twilight years of their careers.

I went into social work when I was 45 years old, as I was looking for a more meaningful career – just like those featured in the articles.

I studied for a diploma in psychology and a graduate diploma in counselling before plunging head on to start my own non-governmental organisation four years ago.

It was a counselling and coaching service that was provided free of charge to jobless Singaporeans struggling with prolonged unemployment. There were no recurring funds because we could not possibly charge a consultation fee when our clients were mostly jobless.

Today, as the sole full-time volunteer, I operate from my home and and depend on my volunteer team of 10 coaches and counsellors to share the heavy load. We must have seen close to 500 people over the past four years.

Funds are hard to come by and we depend on contributions from friends and the public. I remember days when I had less than $100 in the bank.

There also remains the regular urge to return to the workforce and forsake voluntary work. But each time someone writes in seeking support, I relent and continue.

Moreover, each letter thanking us for our services is enough to make me hang on for another year. Indeed, we have just started another support service for divorced people.

I have never felt happier in my life, despite having to struggle with funding. If we dare to look beyond our own needs and focus on those of others, life will be much simpler and more enriching.

Gilbert Goh

President

Transitioning – Unemployment support services

Editor’s Note: This letter appeared in the Straits Times forum online on 15 May. We still urge our readers to support us in our works by contributing generously to our cause for Singapore. Please write to gilbert@transitioning.org  for more details.

Mr Fadil was happy when he managed to secure a senior engineer position at a MNC – UGL Services Premas Operations  Ltd late last year.

He was the engineer in charge of facility management at ITE College West.

The job  was also paying well  and when  he signed up on the dotted line, he felt confident as the job scope was within his capabilities.

However, six months later, he was given the sack and his last day was on 2 May after failing to clear an extended probationary period on 31 March.

The signs were already ominous when he first stepped into the office. Three quarter of the 50-strong workforce are foreigners –  mostly from Philippines, India and Malaysia.

80% of the technical staff are foreigners.

They also tend to clique together according to nationality and it is difficult to penetrate into their inner circle.

Moreover,  two Filipino technical staff who are supposed to assist  him are also loaded with their own duties and he was told not to disturb them. The Filipinos were so unskilled that they could not even fix a simple aircon problem.

He ended up carrying out most of the technical  tasks  himself whereas he was under the impression during the interview that he has two staff  assisting him. He felt cheated.

Mr Fadil brought this matter up to his American boss but every time he was told to carry on working alone.

He was later shocked to be informed  that he was ill-suited for the position of senior engineer after working for a few months and that he would be reassigned.

Nevertheless,  he was given the merry go round by the respective department heads and realised that the reassignment plan  was just a plot to get him out.

Feeling chided, Mr Fadil later had  a stormy meeting with the HR manager – ironically a friend who has brought him into the company but who proved to be very unhelpful when he is in need of wise counsel.

As Singapore struggles with integration in the workforce with many locals fighting to survive in our own country, more can be done to better protect the livelihood of local Singaporeans.

Singapore is probably the only ountry in the world that allows foreigners to control the top and middle management echelon at the work place.

Singaporeans are often sandwiched  at the  middle management level and report to a foreigner  boss who often is suspect in his work and qualification.

Transitioning envisages that stressors at the workplace will boil over in the future with ugly consequences if the ministry does  not look into the local-foreigner quota soon.

Many of the jobs now performed by foreigners can also be carried out by local Singaporeans who are currently jobless.

Already, many locals have questioned the hiring bias of foreign bosses who tend to hire their own kind and even make things difficult for the local staff so that they will resign on their own.

Our ministry probably may need to send in spies to the private sector to better understand the seriousness of the manpower staffing issue.

If not, they will end up not knowing what is the real situation on the ground  if they continue to sit in comfort at the their ivory tower.

Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted last month when the engineer  is still working. He is now no longer  a staff with the company and wish to put the matter behind him.

Transitioning wants to congratulate three of our readers who have found jobs recently and started work today.

Most of them are in their late twenties to early thirties and  jobless for about six months.

Finding a job has been the end of a long dark tunnel of which none of them wanted to relive their  jobless nightmarish experience again.

However, we want jobless readers to ask themselves what have they learn during the period  when they are in transition -  were there valuable lessons learn?  Things to change perhaps and new goals to set for themselves.

They can’t be different anymore and oblivious to what’s happening around them. Many Singaporeans continue to live in their cocoon when they are happily working and are shocked to realise that the labour market is so messy when they are in transition.

Transitioning also has the priviledge of helping these three Singaporeans  walk  through  their lowest point  in transition and wish them the best in their new career.

Incidentally, the average unemployment period for most people here is between 4 – 6 months before they found employment. Suffice to say, the older you are the longer will be your unemployment duration.

Those age 50 and above frankly can seriously consider driving cabs or become property agent – such is the dire straits of our discriminatory age-bias hiring pattern here.

All of them who started work today   also are hired  on a contractual basis i.e. renewable once the contract runs out but they carry full benefits such as medical and leave allowance.

More worryingly, all of them have started on work that they do not have prior experience  and in today’s employer market one can’t fault them as it is really tough to find work that matches the person’s qualifications and skillsets.

You simply grab what that is being offered.

However, their salaries are nothing to shout about. Even with degrees and a few good years of solid work experience, their pay hovers at around $2000 underscoring the ominous trend that the foreign influx has indeed affects starting pay – even for our local graduates.

Of the three , two have degrees – one from a local university and the other   from  a foreign university. The third one has a diploma.

Both the  graduate starting pay of $2000 is no better than the sole diploma holder who manages to clinch a similar $2000 salary. 

The ridiculously low starting pay for graduates nowadays  makes a mockery of our  meritocratic educational system which is supposed to reward the cream of the crop with good salaries as they belong to those who can study and forge ahead.

Transitioning also wants to request jobless Singaporeans who manage to clinch work to negotiate for higher salaries other than the ones that are being offered  to you.

I know that sometimes its easier just to accept the terms and conditions of the contract as you fear that you will miss out on the job but under cutting yourself with a much lower salary can be demoralising as you deserve  more.

Though you will work on but you will be unhappy and  look around for a better paying job as all of us need to survive and there is this   basic intrinsic need to be recognised via a reasonable pay check.

That probably explains why we have a  serious job hopping culture here.

The prospect of getting higher pay elsewhere is one of the most obvious contributors to turnover.(Citedwww.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Eco-Ent/Employee Turnover – duties, benefits, expenses, 13 February 2011).

However,  in a research paper carried out by Kaplan entitled “EFFECTS AND IMPACTS TO ORGANISATIONS ON HIGH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER”, CHEYENNE JASLYN WEE wrote:

“Most environmental contributors can be directly traced to management practices. Turnover tends to be higher in environment that talented employees cannot contribute to their full potential in a cluttered, top-heavy organisation that blurs accountability, stifles initiative and achievement. Turnover recurs when employees feel they are taken advantage of, undervalued and ignored, or when they feel helpless or unimportant. There is a greater risk of alienation and turnover if managers are impersonal, arbitrary, and demanding. The organisational setting and climate affect individual and group performance critically.”

High turnover of staff not only affects productivity in the work place but it also leads to many man hours lost as the company needs to find a suitable replacement and start to retrain the new employee  all over again.

As for wage negotiation, I also know that some employers prefer the candidates to negotiate up and they merely throw in a ridiculous salary structure to test us. The salary offered could be at least 20% lower than what the companies are willing to pay.

Employers will pay the lowest to save cost and as it is a employer market now,  my fear is that starting pay for our graduates will continue to drop.

Only the civil service has a stronger starting pay of between $2500 to $3000 depending on the job scope and ministry.  For example, teachers are paid around $3000 if they have an honours from a local university.

As for the miserable private sector, I have heard of starting salary of  $1700 being offered and many jobless graduates will bite as its better to have a job for morale reason than staying at home and wait.

Its  frankly alright to counter propose when you are at the end of the negotiation round and human resource specialist has being trained to save money for the bosses. They will offer you much lower than what is being budgetted for – so dont be afraid to be assertive and ask for a few hundred dollars more.

A twenty-percent salary increase request  seems pausible especially if the salary offered is ridiculously low. Plan out what to say and why you think the low salary does not commensurate with your qualifications and experience.

State that you will work better and stay on longer if the salary is attractive and reasonable. Don’t settle for second best!

Bosses are also afriad of job hoppers and won’t mind paying a bit more to attract the right candidates.

I remembered asking  for a three-hundred-dollar increase in my pay from $2200 to $2500 – when I met the CEO of a company many years ago during the last interview phase. I was offered $2200 from the department head.

Not only did the CEO accepted  my request without any resistance but he mentioned that a $2500 salary  is just right for someone with a family to take care of!

I wish all CEOs will be that kind and understanding.

If you fail to successfully negotiate up your salary, another thing that you can do is to request for a slight increment once you are confirmed.

Companies normally have a 3 to 6 month confirmation period and some do provide an increment when you are confirmed but many do not.

Ask that the increment upon confirmation be put in writing so that at least you have something to look forward to.

The lack of a minimum wage system has hurt us badly here and the current labour forces all point to a supply heavy  equation due to the influx of foreign talents.

Local graduates are also asking if its worth  studying so hard when starting pay has drop to diploma holder level.

Moreover, its even harder if employers continue to hire foreigners holding suspicious degrees from third world countries over our own local graduates endowned with  first world degrees.

It just does not make any sense…

Written by: Gilbert Goh

Much has being written about the pathetic salary  earns by our rank and  file workers. It is estimated that around 30% of our local workforce earns a salary that is below $1800.  While researching for this article, I could not locate any median salary range for the ordinary rank and file  jobs from  our MOM website. I have thus compiled my own  list here according to the salaries advertised  on the newspapers by employers looking for such staff.

Shockingly, when I did a salary comparison for similar jobs earned ten years ago, a majority of the salary range has stayed stagnant effectively reducing the disposable income  of the average worker in Singapore due to the inflation factor. If there is any salary adjustment for some jobs, its also marginal.  Most of such jobs are also performed by foreign workers automatically  pushing down salaries  as employers will not want to pay more since there is a cheaper alternative  from employing foreigners. There is thus this need to push for a minmum wage policy for our low-waged workers or else they will continue to live on the edge. Minimum wage will also ensure that  more of our  local workers are employed as employers will not be able to capitalise on cheaper foreign imports for low end jobs. Note that the figures  quoted below are for starting salaries only and may fluctuate from employer to employer.

1. General drivers (delivery)

2000 – $1300 – $1500

2010 – $1300 – $1500

NB: Generally performed by local workers but foreigners are seen encroaching into this area now. Drivers are expected  to also load and unload goods at the customer places. A 6-day work week is the norm for such work. Not for the middle-aged and feeble.

2. Security officer (full time 8-hour shift)

2000 – $1000

2010 – $1300

NB: A job that is still predominantly performed by locals as foreigners are  barred from such work. Security officers need to clear a certification exam after a 5-day course. This industry can benefit from a more professional image and improved work benefits. Many security officers have no leave or medical benefits and only have two off days in a month. However, recently, pay has improved slightly for such jobs and has attracted some grads  who are affected by the recent downturn. Security officer who aspires to be security supervisor can take the supervisory courses which last around three months.

3. Waiters (full time)

2000 – $1200 – $1300

2010 – $1200 – $1300

NB: Job that is now performed mostly by foreigners (Filipinos, Chinese, Indians)  due to the low salary and the tough split-shift work system. An industry that is seen as low end and has no prospects. There is also no scope for advancement. Many leave this industry when they find better work elsewhere. Pay has remain flat for the past decade and does not seem like improving in the near future. A better pay structure and all-out drive to attract locals may spice up this foreigner-dominated industry.

4.  Clerk (junior)

2000 – $800

2010 – $900 – $1000

NB: Job that is still mostly carried out  by locals but Filipinos are now seen performing such  job scope. Starting pay has also remain flat all these years. Many junior clerks move on to become administrators after a few years of work experience and upgrading.

5.  Administrator

2000 – $1500

2010 – $1600

NB: Such work is still dominated by the locals for the time being but Filipinos with their strong command of English is slowly taking over such jobs. An industry that also suffers from a stagnanted pay struture that does no justice to these  office generals  who often become the office manager as well.

6. Cafe assistant (full time)

2000 – $1000

2010 – $1100

NB: Such work is split between the locals and foreigners. Of course, foreigners who  are younger and fitter, are the preferred choice of most employers. It  is  actually a no-brainer who the employer will employ if given a choice between the two. Pay has remain flat for the past decade and people job hop alot here. Has no job prospect and will soon be dominated by foreigners in the near future as employers continue to rely on cheap labour to run their  operation. Can benefit alot from mechanisation and better productivity.

7. Cleaner

2000 – $700

2010 – $700 – $800

NB: The cleaner job has not evolve much all these years as employers continue to rely on labour to do such work instead of mechanisation. Many uncles and aunties are shoved aside by the foreign cleaning brigade who is also seen as  faster and cheaper. Pay has remain flat for the past decade and workers become serial job hoppers in this industry. Employers have to rely on foreign workers to stem the high turnover among the local workers. An industry that badly needs an overhaul.

8. Factory operator

2000 – $1000 – $1200

2010 – $1000 – $1200

NB: Mainly perform by foreigners all this while due to the cost factor but many manufacturing companies have recently pull out of Singapore to countries like China. Malaysia and Vietnam due to the cheaper labour cost. Such work may not stay with us for very long. A sunset industry that we may want to forget.

9. Garage assistant (junior)

2000 – $1200

2010 – $1300

NB: An industry that is dominated by the oldies as our youngsters shun away from such jobs. Malaysians have also dominate such industry. Seen as a sunset industry.

10. Sales/retail  assistant

2000 – $1400

2010 – $1500

NB: An industry ithat s increasingly taken over by the Chinese foreigners as employers prefer younger workers but have refuse to increase the wages. The long working hours and weekend hours also deter many locals from such jobs. Pay can increase however due to the commission factor  tied to the quantity of products sold. Professionalism needs to be improved and with better pay locals may be attracted.  Most work  carried out by sales assistants abroad are performed by its own  local people. There is no reason to believe that this can’t be done in Singapore.

11. SBS bus driver

2000 – $1500

2010 – $1800

NB: At least 35% of our SBS bus drivers are foreigners hail mainly from Malaysia, China and India.  Recruitment drive for bus drivers is also very active abroad. The reasonably good pay has attracted some local workers in their 30s to try out this industry. Its still better than cab driving as you have a stable income and work benefits. SBS has done well to improve pay and work conditions to attract our locals into such jobs.

12. Mover

2000 – $1200

2010 – $1200

NB: An industry that is performed mainly by people looking for a part time job or in betwwen jobs. Pay  around $50  for a a hard day of back-breaking work. Not for the middle-aged and feeble. Another labour-intensive job that has not much  prospect.

13. Secretary (junior)

2000 – $1300

2010 – $1500

NB: Used to be a favourite job for school-leavers who have  just finish school.  A secretarial certificate is often required now for candidates keen on such job. Many junior secretaries move on to MNCs after acquiring a few years of work experience as the pay is higher and there are  better work benefits.

14. Accounts assistant

2000 – $1300

2010 – $1400

NB: A position that is a favourite for those who have passs out from the NTC accounting course. Reserved mainly for locals and there is always a demand for such positions. Pay can increase as the person chalks up work experience to become the senior accounts assistant. Starting pay has however remain flat all these years.

15. Cashier (NTUC, Cold Storage, etc)

2000 – $1100

2010 – $1200

NB: Another job that is reserved mainly for our local aunties. However, foreign Chinese workers are now seen manning cashiers in our supermarkets. A hot favourite for those who want to work part time for a few hours daily  and be a housewife as well. Pay will remain flat even after several years of work experience in this industry. A hot favourite job for retireess as well.

16.  Forklift driver

2000 – $1400

2010 – $1600

NB: Another industry that always has vacancies due to our solid warehousing and shipping industries. Need to go for a few weeks training and pass the forklift driver certificaton. An industry that has seen many foreigners coming in as many employers could not find local workers. Tough working environment as well. Pay can be good after  a few years of work experience.

17. Shipping clerk

2000 – $1600

2010 – $1700

NB: The shipping clerk is always thought of as someone who will work at least 10 hours in the office and will not see the light of day as she is forever cooped up in the office. Turnover is also high due to the stressful nature of the job. Pay can be high ($2500) after several years of work experience as there is a demand for such esteemed positions.

18. Nurse

2000 – $1000

2010 – $1200

NB: Many locals are attracted by such work even though the starting pay is relatively low. Junior nurses have to pass a one-year course sponsored by the government and have to sign a bond after that.  I feel that people who turn to such industry may be eyeing  immigration as countries such as Australia, Britain and USA have all along welcome immigrants with nursing experience. However, if the nurse decides to stay on, the salary at private hospitals is known to be much better. A experienced nurse can command  salary of around $2500 if she works in a private hospital. Those with a nursing degree can even be the nursing manager of a hospital commanding at least $4000 in salary.

Editor’s Note: This post first appeared here on Sep 2010.

Mum at her best when she smiles alot

Happy Mother’s Day to my mum! Only if  she is able to read this blog…

My mum is already 82 years young and it seems like she is getting more cheerful as the days go by – despite her stroke and mental health condition.

She is always smiling when someone accidentally glances  at her and approaches small children as if they are her own grand children.

Sometimes, strangers  will simply stop by and chat with her as if they know her before - she just attracts this kind of rave attention!

However, she isn’t all this  popular back in the past…

Mum has schizophrenia for a very long time since I was a little boy and we only managed to convince her to see a doctor  15 years ago. For all the sufferings that we  went through with her together as a family, I regretted deeply  not seeking medical help for her earlier.

Neighbours shunned us and we house-hopped frequently whenever things got out of hand for mum. Once, I almost forgotten that we have already shifted and went back to the old house after school!

I also have problem remembering addresses when I have to fill up forms in school  as we shifted house too often.

Those days, mum would talk to herself alot and sometimes imagined neighbours are talking behind her back.

I counted the many  times police came up to our house on yet another complaint made against her and sometimes I even have to sit on those police patrol cars while they brought us to the police station for questioning!

It was a torrid childhood time for me  to say the least and dad had a tough time handling her. It was indeed amazing how they even managed to stay intact all this while.

Dad died young – when he was only 60 years old making mum a widow for almost 30 years.

Things got much better when I came out to work to support the family and of course everything went back to a new normal when she has access to medication. She still occasionally speaks to herself but it is alot softer and subdued now.

Mum later contracted a mild stroke five years ago and it rendered her almost immoble and home-bound.

Once used to travel independently by bus from my brother’s place to mine, she is now reduced to assistive walking and needed someone to be around her.

Nevertheless, my biggest fear is not her medical conditions as all these are almost synonymous with old age – it is her non-relationship with her grandchildren.

My 82-year-old mum spoke only Cantonese and Mandarin but my daughter hardly can converse well with both.

So they spoke to each other using a raw combination of Singlish, Contonese and Mandarin and you can imagine how intimate they can be if they can’t even properly communicate with one another.

Since when did you see a grand child here brings his grand parent out together for a walk or shop together? Hardly.

The task is usually performed by a domestic helper further hampering the relationship.

The chronic work culture here also means that we ourselves hardly have the time nor energy to do anything worthwhile after work for our ageing parents.

Mind you – we don’t even have time to speak with our own spouses and children!

We rather watch TV or laze around to relax after a hard day out at the workplace.

Our old parents are pretty much left alone the whole day at home with a domestic helper whom they can hardly communicate with.

Personally, I am fortunate as I am doing my own stuff and thus not restricted to a office 9-to-5 work schedule.

I have being bringing my stroke-stricken mum out for lunch once a week for the past ten years. This habit was ironically cultivated  when I was jobless for 18 months during 2001/02.

Mum digging into her favourite chicken rice

Seeing that I have alot of free time on my hand, I decided to ask my mum out once a week for lunch. I was planning my jobless weekly schedule then and bringing her out for lunch took out almost half a day of  available any week day.

My mum isn’t a fantastic talker or encourager but her quiet gentle care during that period pushed me on to live for another day, week and month.

She didn’t check whether I have any interview or not for that week or if I have sent out sufficient emails looking for jobs – she is just there for me period.

Looking back, my mum is probably my main source of support  when I experienced prolonged umeployment during that stormy dark  period.

I have heard from some clients how their mums terrorised them when they are out of job and  they have to leave the house to seek refuge in the library.

I was glad that my mum isn’t like that.

When mum  is healthy and more mobile back then, we used to move around alot for lunches – going to Tampines Mall, Century Square or even Orchard Road for the rare shopping trip during Christmas period.

It was a habit which is made slightly tougher by her stroke condition five  years ago as her mobility is slow and unsteady now.

We have to catch a cab to the nearby Whitesand shopping mall  even though it is a mere five minutes walk for the able-bodied. If we walk, it will take about 30 minutes and she will have to sit down every twenty steps or more.

Mum looks forward to such weekly lunch rendevous with me as it means a day out of the boring routine of simply sitting on her own in the 5-room flat of my brother’s – for many continuous hours.

Sometimes, whenever I visit  her, it bothered me alot  that no one is talking to her as she sits there staring blankly into space for hours.  She just moves when lunch or dinner is ready or needs to go to the bathroom.

However, she told me that she is used  to it and kind of  like it too as she is relaxed and resting! Though I can’t understand her philosophy, I have to take her word for it.

Mum enjoyed the usual chicken rice at Whitesand – located outside the mall even though it costs only $2.00. Its not the grand meal that she looks out for but the bonding that she cherishes with me – that is what I would like to think!

Mum eats almost double of my portion and she still looks amazingly slim. I always wonder where the food goes to…

We don’t talk alot during the few hours of mother-son bonding but it fulfills a great need in her to be loved and cared for.

Most eating stalls over there would know us by now as we have been eating there for the past few months almost on a weekly basis.

Of course, I enjoyed all the accolades of “Wah, you so filial, always bring your mum out for lunch!”

Nevertheless, some old people whom we bumped into and ate alone tend to gave us that envious look of “How I wish my son can do that!”

At the old age of 82 years old, any occurrence of a potential second stroke  may totally destroy mum so  every living day is a bonus for us all.

I don’t want to cry at the deathbed of my mum and regret that I didn’t spent enough time with her when she is still living – a reminder which is repeated very often by friends whose parents have passed away.

As Singapore over-depends on the services of domestic maids, let us be mindful that they will never be able to replace the relationship we have with our parents.

I see too many old people accompanied by their maids when they are out on their own and though there is nothing wrong with this, it is always good to take some time out to be with your own parents.

Our ageing parents rather spent one day a week with us than seven days a week with their domestic helpers.

It is high time that we take over the responsibility of caring for our parents – don’t throw them to the domestic helpers!

Happy Mother’s Day to all mums here and abroad!

Written by: Gilbert Goh

Editor’s Note: I won’t be bringing mum out today as it will be very crowded and meals are at least double that of normal prices. I will be of course bringing her out weekly as usual.

This month marked the first year after  the watershed GE 2011 and it seemed like yesterday that we were up shaking hands with residents at Tampines NSP GRC during our rigorous campaigning..

Standing as a candidate with the  NSP Tampines team was one of the most memorable life event for me and there were of course both highlights and downlights.

Personally, it was a tough decision to make as with most candidates we hesitated over family  reasons  but once the final decision was made, it was all the way  and we campaigned hard and fierce.

Introduction

Contrary to what many people thought, campaigning is more tiring emotionally   than physically.

If you are physically tired, you could simply lie down and rest but emotionally you could not rest properly as it still taunts you  though you are at rest physically.

There was always the expectation part that you worried about – were you doing your best during the walkabout and campaign rally speeches.

For me, I knew that I bombed during rally speeches but did rather well during walkabout when I took time to listened to many residents at the coffeeshops and home. Perhaps, my counselling skills came in rather handy on this apect.

Though we lost by a mere 6% in Tampines, we felt like victors and many analysts  have commented that if we have put up a stronger team, we may even have won!

Of course, all of you knew that we also  lost Meng Seng – our ex-SG at NSP through a leadership tussle one month after GE 2011 and naturally the whole Tampines team  disbanded. Probably only Syafarih and Reno stayed  behind.

It is a pity as I thought that we have forged a solid team during the few months that we campaigned together.

Opposition candidates also have a tough time continue campaigning after the GE except for regular walkabout events and this inertia has benefitted the ruling party as they could regroup almost undeterred.

What’s next after Tampines NSP GRC?

I remembered the whole team going over to Raymond’s home during the last week as we prepared for our final touches to our campaign rally  for that night.

We joked about who will become minister if we win and which particular constituency each of us  will handle.

Though we campaigned to win deep down inside we knew that it was a tall order. Nevertheless, we were glad that we have fought a good fight and kicked the former housing minister Mr Mah Bow Tan out of the cabinet!

After GE 2011, I decided on the path of a social  activist and will continue helping disenchanted jobless Singaporeans caught up by   the foreign influx policy.

I will not comment futher on my political future here.

I have  also just read two excellent pieces on the one-year  aftermath of the GE 2011 – one by Mr Seah Chiang Nee and the other by the ever-green Catherine Lim.

Both are must-read articles if you want to have a snap-shot of the political climate one year after GE 2011 – many considered to be a watershed one.

For the record, I believe that GE 2016 will be the watershed election – not GE 2011 – as more seats will fall to the opposition if things are going on the way it is right now.

There is still the strong angry sentiments that underpin how the country is being governed and so far I don’t see much has changed after the recent election.

I have also accurately  predicted a few months prior to the previous election on this site that the strong sentiments against the foreign influx and the huge influence  of the social media would have adverse repercussion on GE 2011 for the ruling party.

Though the PAP may try to soften the foreign influx sentiments through legislation,  it could not do much to regulate the social media unless they try to enforce it through legislation forcing  many anti-establishment blogs to  go underground.

PAP – slow to change may be its ultimate downfall?

Seeing how damaging social media sites could be, I am not surprised that months prior to GE 2016, something will crop up which  will cripple the strong wings of these anti-establishment sites.

So,  has our government changed much after GE 2011?

Yes, there are cosmetic changes such as how our Prime Minister has  a facebook  page going on recently and  Minister Tan Chuan Jin’s publicised foray into the Bukit Brown issue for the sake of engagement but fundamentally the governing philosophy of the ruling party has not changed much.

There is still no freedom of speech – a big radical shift indeed if it does otherwise  as it still  clamps down on public open dissent all this while and the regime still smells of dictatorship and power monoply.

The fact that the influential socio-political blog TRE was sued earlier this year by both the Prime Minister and his younger brother testified to this dictatorial no-nonsense stance.

The only reason for this stance  is that the ruling party fears the damage it may bring to its power base  if it suddenly relaxes and allows the population to speak up openly in public. Currently, even a one-man public protest is punishable by law!

They fear a public backlash like the ones initiated in Tunisia, Egypt and most recently Malaysia. They will naturally  try to clamp it down at all cost as it will hurt their power base.

It will also try to shore up as much power base as possible and relent when it does not hurt them as much politically.

The ruling party will only engage the citizens through it’s official feedback channel REACH and will downplay all other channels – be it opposition-led or otherwise.

This site has try to engage the different ministries and though we have some successful unofficial meetings with MOM, NTUC and  TAFEP - we are still unable to have an audience with the relevant ministers for feedback purpose.

The government may need to seriously consider engaging civil groups that have the country at heart rather than shunning from them totally especially if they are seen as anti-establishment.

Our government is also not noted for drastic quick changes and its slowness in implementing changes may be its biggest bugbear as the population is tired of waiting for a regime that promises alot but fails to deliver much.

Though the housing policy has changed somewhat under the astute leadership of Housing Minister Mr Khaw Boon Wan and PM Lee has reduced ministerial pay by one-third, nothing much has actually changed under the ruling party after GE 2011.

In fact, things have gone somewhat worse especially after the two major train mishaps last year and the growing social disharmony due to the foreign influx policy which has displaced many mid-aged PMETs.

The rich-poor income disparity  is still there and inflation has rocketted to 5.2% last month. Well educated Singaporeans continue their emigration foray overseas reaching a high of 12,000 recently.

By now, 190,000 Singaporeans have moved abroad either for study or work-related purposes. Many have no intention of returning.

Hougang by-election – sure-win for Workers’ Party?

From not being able to vote all this while due to the faulty by-election strategy used by Mr Chiam See Tong  to coax Singaporeans to vote for the opposition as the government has already been formed, most Singaporeans by now would have the opportunity to vote twice – one for GE 2011 unless you stay in Tg Pagar GRC and the other for the most-recently held Presidential Election.

Hougang residents have the luxury of voting for  a third time and bookies I heard have given WP a +8% majority win i.e. the WP candidate must triumph  by 8 percent or more before you can win the bet.

However, it would be tough for WP to register another record vote of 64.8% chalked up by the previous WP candidate Mr Yaw Shin Leong from the roughly 22, 500 voters living in Hougang SMC.

The PAP candidate Mr Desmond Choo has being working the ground diligently and some new voters who have moved in to the old estate recently may have other plans.

Nevertheless, I will still take the  WP to win the SMC comfortably but perhaps by a reduced majority  of  60%.

Its still a slap to the face of the ruling party and one that it hopes will not be repeated so soon after the disastrous GE 2011.

Another defeat in Hougang SMC will be hard to stomach and one can see that our Prime Minister has aged alot recently.

However, the sex saga that plagued Mr Yaw and the leadership of WP would have some deterrent signs and many are also unhappy with its’ subpar performance in Parliament recently.

Other than its parliamentary sitting, WP is  being faulted by many political analysts for being too quiet on the civil social front.

For example, it could have being more vocal in attacking some of the pro-foreign hiring policies of the manpower ministry as most Singaporeans are aghast at how certain policies have allowed employers to hire foreigners over locals easily.

SDP has in fact risen up quite  alot recently and may even challenge WP for being the next dominant opposition party if  it could win at least a GRC in GE 2016.

Its healthcare plan for the country has being impressive and recently it has also beef up its strength through the recruitment of some solid healthcare specialists.

Singapore better or worse  - after GE 2011

Yet most Singaporeans will want to know – what really have changed in Singapore after GE 2011? Are we living better lives after the watershed election?

Are Singaporeans getting more involved politically or have we retreated to our shelf after the hustle and bustle of the recent GE?

If we want to compare life after GE 2011, what yardstick should we use to measure the difference?

All signs pointed to a more robust political environment especially in the online forum front.

More people flocked to socio-political blogs such as TRE, TOC and the recent new kid on the block  Temasek Times.

Nevertheless, for those Singaporeans’ First events that we have organised at Hong Lim Park, we detected a dwindling crowd size and for the recent SDP Labour Day rally, only about 200 people have turned up.

Unless Singaporeans show its support personally  for socio-political events organised by opposition parties or civil socio groups we will sadly not move beyond the arm chair critic slogan tag given to  our most earnest  opposition  supporters.

Our Prime Minister has promised changes when he apologised to the whole nation in a last-minute CBD lunch rally during GE 2011  - his face etched in pain and remorse when he said it as there is a fearful likelihood that he may lose a few GRCs given the strong angry undercurrent of anti-establishment sentiments then.

It was the first time that any PM has apologised to the nation –  a few days before the population cast its votes before an election. The call was also made a few days after his father strongman Lee Kuan Yew called on those who have the  intention  to vote for the opposition in  Aljunied GRC to repent.

The public apology by the PM  clearly showed that  the ruling party is desperately  fearing that  more than one GRC would fall to the opposition. Many have also rumoured that PAP  is willing to lose Aljunied GRC but no more.

One hundred and twenty thousand Singaporeans swung their votes from the ruling party to the opposition last year – representing a 6% swing which led to the PAP registering a record-low  60.1% majority votes.

Frankly speaking, if not for the 130,000 new foreign citizen votes – which  most likely would have voted  for the ruling party out of loyalty, the PAP’s majority votes will be much lower and they may even lose a few more seats.

So my take is that the PAP will continue to use the low birth rate to convince the population that more foreign new citizens will be needed to negate the growing anti-establishment sentiments.

Moreover, each year more than 20,000 new Gen Y voters will come on board and they are mostly anti-establishment given their upbringing and psyche.

Come GE 2016, if another 100,000 citizens decide to swing their votes, PAP’s  majority votes will drop to 55% and most likely two GRCs may be gone -  East Coast, Moulmein-Kallang or  Tampines GRC.

The next four years will be crucial not only for the ruling party but also for Singapore.

Will the ruling party welcomes more changes and implement them swiftly or  will it still drag its feet and implement them when it comes to the crucial  push for the polls?

By all accounts, it is trying its best to evolve into something more acceptable to the population but fundamentally its difficult to change as the whole cabinet team grows up together serving under one master.

Its DNA is almost the same and the growing number of army generals and admirals helming the cabinet now means  that group-think is almost prevalent and changes operate best when there is a diversity of views – something that I fear is missing right now within the ruling party.

All signs  point to yet another watershed election in GE 2016…

Written by: Gilbert Goh

In 2007, after I was retrenched from my managerial  position, I decided to seek assistance from CDC who later referred me to WDA for some upgrading courses.

Upgrading was a big word then and everyone who seeked support from CDC was required to sign up for any courses that were available.

Globalisation has hurt  us quite badly and companies continued to pull out of Singapore for cheaper locations. Hundreds of MNCs must have pulled out of our country during that period as the huge semi-con industry took a big hit.

I selected SIMM’s certificate in logistics as it was short-term – 6 weeks full time and there was the promise of possible internship with selected companies. I was keen on switching to a career in logistics all along and the course was like a dream came true.

The fact that WDA  funded me  for the entire cost fee of $3000  was also  a push factor for me to join.  Its better than staying at home waiting for the employers to call you for an interview and jobs were in scarcity then.

There was also no bond tied to the contract and you only need to complete the course failing which you have to pay back the whole course fee in its entirety.

After packing up my books from university for so long,  it was refreshing returning back to the classroom again – together with 20 other jobless PMETs in similar plight.

Most of them were in their 40s with some in their early 50s. They came from all walks of life – some were engineers, others IT specialists,  technicians and purchasers.

However, we all shared one common bond – we were jobless because of the new economy and sometimes I wondered if globalisation is such a good thing after all if it has rendered so many people worldwide out of job.

Besides absorbing about the nuts and bolts on logistics, it was fun socialising and networking with my classmates who incidentally were mostly  males.

Six weeks blazed by quickly and we were all offered our certificate from the course provider SIMM. Incidentally, the lecturers were great and we learned alot during that period.

There was however  not much mention of the promised internship posting to a logistics company and some of us were naturally anxious.

We have depended on the internship attachment as a stepping stone to any employment opportunity and if this is not readily available many of us would not have wasted our time attending the course – even though its free.

Weeks passed and there was still no news of a possible internship and my heart sunk.

Surely the government can do something and at least arm twist a few logistics companies to offer us an attachment?

Later on, I  heard that only one out of the twenty participants managed to clinch an attachment and that was because he already had prior experience working in that sector. The rest of us were left in the cold.

Not only had we wasted six weeks of our time but the immense disappointment was difficult to stomach.

It told me a while to overcome that emotional upheaval and of course my trust in  any government aid agency nosedived after that incident.

I also could not recall anyone of us ever utilise the certificate to land us a career in logistics.

Moreover, WDA wasted $60, 000 of  our hard-earned tax paying money on 20 unemployed local Singaporeans and I wondered how much money was flushed down the drain in total for meaningless upgrading courses which have brought us no tangible benefit whatsoever.

The government ought to ask themselves what are the kind of courses that will really benefit the PMETs before sending them out for the lessons. 

If  not, the whole upgrading exercise will only benefit course providers who could make millions within a very short period.

I have known of some course providers who were set up specially  to tap into the upgrading funds  of the government and later closed down when the need died down.

Its apparent that skills-based courses are more relevant for the new economy rather than theoretical lessons taught mostly from text books. 

Healthcare, and social work courses ought  to be ramped up as there is a need for more workers in these two sectors. Matured PMETs who are in their twilight career won’t mind switching over to these two sectors if its feasible.

They won’t mind a much lesser pay check as most of us know that our good earning days are over. We just want something to do that will make us feel good about our society.

I was also told that PMETS took many upgrading courses at  their own cost but these were not up for subsidy as they are not on the upgrading list. 

WDA ought to revamp how they subsidise courses and if possible  allocate a small  training allowance to any deserving local Singaporeans who are in the mid 40s and out of work.

They can use it for any upgrading courses that they see fit subject to a maximum quota. The government  also needs to trust our local Singaporean PMETs alot more for this to work well.

This way, WDA does not run the risk of sending PMETs to courses that will not benefit them at all and our jobless PMETs can take up any courses that they feel best match their needs for upgrading.

Its an ideal win-win situation for all…

Written by: Disappointed PMET

Editor’s Note: The writer has since destroyed his certificate from SIMM. The interview was conducted recently and he is currently still jobless after working on contract for a while. Though WDA has spent tens of millions of tax payer money on upgrading courses, it has yet to provide any concrete data how many of these matured jobless PMETS found jobs after attending the courses. This article was forwarded to the relevant ministries and WDA for their response if any.

by Al Siebert, Ph.D., author of The Resiliency Advantage

Losing your job through no fault of your own can wipe you out emotionally. How do you deal with your loss of esteem? With anger? How do you sustain your energy for searching for work? You know that prospective employers are turned off by an applicant who complains about a previous employer, how can you be pleasant, relaxed, and self-confident in an interview? Here are guidelines for skillfully handling the emotional challenge of dealing with job loss and searching for new employment:

1. Write about how you feel. Include all the things you would like to have said to your previous bosses but didn’t. Continue expressing your feelings over and over until you feel emptied. Do this once a day for a week. Afterwards do this anytime you have a flashback.

Psychologist James Pennebaker had one group of unemployed people write down their feelings about being laid off for twenty minutes, five days in a row. He had a similar group of unemployed people write about their time schedule for their job search for twenty minutes, five days in a row. In the months that followed more of the people who wrote about their emotions found employment. Afterwards the emotions writing group said they wished someone had told them about what to do sooner.

Writing about your feelings is especially important if the way you were terminated was emotionally painful. Recall the details and write about how you feel over and over and over again. Doing this helps you overcome emotional trauma, begin to heal, and stop feeling like a victim wounded for life.

Do pleasant, enjoyable things each day. Do what revitalizes you! Positive emotions expand your problem solving skills and strengthen your resiliency.

2. Resiliency starts with adapting quickly to the new reality. Dwelling on “If only,…” keeps you mired in the past and is discouraging. Choose to have this happen at this time in your life. Why is it good that this happened? What unexpected opportunity has losing your job opened up for you?

3. Form a small support group. Link up with others like yourself. Devote your first meetings to grieving about what you have lost. Take turns talking about the way you were terminated. Have each person answer these questions:
What did you enjoy about your job?
What do you miss the most?
What do you not miss?
What is one of your best accomplishments? What will you always feel proud about?

Telephone each other each evening to find out how you are doing. As Barbara Sher and Annie Gottlieb point out in Wishcraft, people have more courage for each other than they have for themselves.

Hold brainstorming sessions about how to find employment opportunities. Be alert to help each other discover good opportunities.

4. Rebuild your self-esteem. Make a list of everything you like and appreciate about yourself. Include all the things you’ve done in the past year that you like yourself for doing.

A good way to boost your self-esteem and self-confidence is to obtain letters of appreciation from recent co-workers and managers about how much they enjoyed working with you. These may be short paragraphs describing either specific or general contributions you made. Yes, it takes courage to ask people for these endorsements, but you will be pleasantly surprised and touched by people’s eagerness to help. You will be moved by their appreciation of strengths and qualities you may not have realized anyone noticed. After obtaining these endorsements, type three or four paragraphs from the letters on a single sheet and attach it to your resume.

Remember: employers in the process of hiring are concerned by the one factor most difficult to predict: What would this person be like to have around on a day to day basis? By providing a page of endorsements, you help prospective employers resolve their dilemma and gain a more complete understanding of you. In addition, you dispel the illusion that unemployed people have something “wrong” with them. These endorsements document the value you had to people you worked with and will also help to remind you of all that you contributed.

5. Write a detailed description of what you do well and practice talking about your reliable strengths. Describe specific projects or assignments you feel proud about. Describe your people skills. Describe what equipment or software you run well. Describe your abilities to your support group or to a friend. In today’s world you must overcome false modesty! Telling others about your reliable strengths and skills is not bragging. One executive told me, “I ask job applicants why I should hire them. I figure if they can’t sell themselves to me, how can they sell my company to prospective customers?”

6. Discover something of value in your experience. People hit with major, life disrupting experiences will tend to have either a victim/blaming reaction or a coping/learning reaction. Find the gift. Why was it good that this happened? What have you learned from this experience? How has it made you a stronger, better person? Prospective employers are impressed with someone who can admit to being upset and distressed, but have managed to find value in the experience. Practice telling people, “It was rough at first, but I’m glad it happened because….” Find encouragement in resiliency stories.

7. Make finding a job your job. Don’t hang around the house as if you are on vacation. Get out and talk with people. Nine out of ten job openings are never advertised in the newspaper. Make appointments to find out what is happening in places where you would like to work.

Be persistent. Research has shown that the one factor above all others that leads to getting hired is the number of potential employers contacted.

Focus on the employer’s needs, more than your own. No one except a relative will hire you because you need a job. When you find a position you would like to have, research what the managers need to have happen. Then customize your resume and application to fit exactly with what this employer needs. They must see you as uniquely qualified for the position.

Before your job interview take a few minutes to meditate on your past successes and reliable skills. If you become preoccupied with the fourteen times you’ve been turned down, you might as well not show up. The attitude “You probably won’t want to hire me either” gets results, as does the attitude “You are going to benefit greatly if you hire me.” Stay balanced, expect to be hired while being emotionally prepared to be turned down.

8. Be open to unexpected opportunities. A man who had worked as an inventory control specialist for a large electronic firm was in a convenience store one Saturday about noon. Behind him was a tired looking man with an armload of sandwiches and soft drinks.

“Going on a picnic?” he asked the man with the sandwiches.

“No,” the man said. He nodded toward the building across the street, “we’re doing our annual inventory. We’ll be here all week-end working late.”

“Don’t you have a database program to do all that?” the specialist asked.

“The company has one, but the person who knew how to run it left for another job. We’re doing it by hand.”

The specialist said he believed he could help, walked across the street, and after a quick demonstration of his skills was hired on the spot.

9. Take creative action. Toward the end of the Depression in the 1930s, Professor Howard Stephenson wrote a book about people who were good survivors. One of his favorite stories was about a red-headed young man who answered a newspaper ad for an office assistant. When the young man showed up at the business he found a long line of job applicants ahead of him. Sizing up the situation, he went to the nearest Western Union office and had the following telegram delivered to the employment interviewer:
“Don’t hire anyone until you talk to the red-headed kid at the end of the line.” Shortly after the telegram was delivered the interviewer came out of his office with the telegram clutched in his hand. He found the red-headed sender of the message and took him into the office. The interviewer said, “You are exactly the sort of assistant we need here,” and hired him.

10. Pay attention to your recent employer’s new situation. Four environmental specialists with a state agency had their jobs eliminated even though their work was mandated by the federal government. In a problem solving session, a few of them saw that their work had to be done by someone even if the state had to hire a consulting firm to do it. The solution? They formed a consulting firm and obtained the contract at a higher rate of pay for them all!

Transitioning has seen close to 500 jobless clients by now and 75% of them are men. They are looking for counselling or coaching support from our volunteer team.

I remembered when we conducted a support group series last year for people in transition, eleven PMETs turned up  and  there was only one woman.

Even the woman PMET expressed surprise that she was the only female participant as she thought that there would be more women in transition who needed support.

Introduction

This gender  trend followed many of our events held throughout these four years while we are in operation.

So do employers prefer to hire women over our male jobless counterparts or are there some other more complex industrial reasons unknown to many of us?

Unlike other western countries. many jobless fathers have turned into house husbands and some even receive an allowance from their working wives.  Our Asian men will shy away from being house husbands as culturally we are looked upon as providers.

Failing to do so  have caused many men to either abandon their families in shame or withdraw from the family emotionally. Its difficult to look into the eyes of your child when you are staying at home the whole day whereas your wife is out in the corporate world bringing in the bacon.

Thus, our men who are facing prolonged unemployment also encounter  relationship issues with their wives especially  when  there are financial problems at home. Transitioning has seen at least 20% of these cases with marital problems and  some marriages have even broken up as a result.

It does not help that half of these jobless male PMETs  we have seen are  engineers by profession in sunset semi-con industries and some  of them even have MBAs. Their last drawn salaries are in the high four figures and the better ones even commanded five figure pay scale.

Most of them have high-sounding titles before such as senior engineer, department head or regional manager – sadly these past attributes do not help them one bit to get  rehired.

In fact, hiring department heads tend to shun local engineers who have solid qualifications and experiences for fear that  one day they will over-take them. They prefer to hire fresh inexperienced engineers from abroad.

Dilemma of middle aged male jobless PMETs

For now, employers can hire engineers for less than $2000 from Philippines, India or Myarmar using  the S-Pass work permit - further complicating the employment opportunities for  our middle aged male engineering PMETs.

Employment agents I spoken to informed me that unless high-powered engineers are willing to take at least a 40% cut in their pay scale, they will be left on the shelf.

Most of these positions also require them to travel extensively or even a outright posting to some  forsaken third world country.

Its still a mystery why local engineers are still so much sought after by foreign countries whereas  our own employers opted for talents from third world countries with suspicious degrees. I reckon  its due to  the cost factor.

Local engineers and IT specialists  are also the ones that are unemployed for a longer period –  an average of between 8 to 12 months compared to our women folks who usually are rehired within 3 months or less on average.

A lot of this engineering group  drops to the prolonged unemployment category – reserved for those who are jobless for more than 26 weeks and not surprisingly they are mostly men at the wrong age group.

Our women folks seem to be more fortunate when it comes to being rehired – even if they are in their 40s.

Females – wanted in administrative and financial sector

A female single PMET  in her late 30s, who has worked in the adminstrative and secretarial sector  for almost 15 years, was  rehired within two months after she was retrenched from her job recently. 

Though her pay was reduced by 20% from $2900 to $2300 she was glad that the unemployment period was not any longer. She is single and  self sufficent as both her  parents have passed on. She  only obtained a private secretarial certificate many years ago while starting out and has no other formal qualification.

Strangely, her pay equals that of our local graduates with a few years of work experience – an ominous sign that indeed the foreign influx has led to a downward spiral of our wages here especially for our female graduates.

So is it right to assume that though it is easier for our women graduates to get rehired,  their pay package is usually smaller than our male counterparts? All sign  point to this fact as for example in the civil service, male fresh recruits are given a double increment in recognition of their national service contribution.

It is thus not surprising if the private sector will do the same thing i.e. give our male fresh graduates a better head-start over  our female graduates for similar positions.

To reiterate that female graduates can get rehired easier - another local female graduate I knew who is in her late 20s was  offered an administrative position with a salary of $2000 and there is a high chance that she will go for it even though her degree is in finance and the pay range is not within her expectation. 

She was looking more for finance-related positions and expected a pay check of $2500 at least.

Better to be working than wait for the right job on the sidelines.

Many now are working and looking and I wondered how that will help companies resolve our local job hopping bad habit.

All this only benefits employment agents who charge sky-high fees for companies looking for talents. Some I heard even charge exorbitant rates of almost 30% of the annual salary of successful candidates for providing manpower sourcing.

Nevertheless, by offering a salary that does not renumerate  well with the candidate’s educational qualifications and skillsets, the company runs the risk of hiring someone who is disheartened and on the look out for better paying jobs.

Administrative positions also favour female jobseekers and are always in the market. If the person fits the bill one can get an administrative  job easily, almost within the same month if she is not choosy.

Moreover, many employers prefer women to fill in for administration vacancies.

How often have you heard of a guy performing the role of  an adminstrator?

A local company I visited recently  told me that they prefer a woman candidate  to fill in for the position of purchaser assistant – reason being woman is known to be neater, tidier  and more detailed than man!

Though I have to agree with her selection bias, subconsciously, I couldn’t help but realised that many of our local employers are rather discriminatory in nature - sometimes without them even knowing it!

Most of the women who have written in to us to seek support have degrees in mass communication, finance, marketing, arts and social sciences.

It is also a well known fact that women tend to dominate in enrolment for places in tertiary insititutions. Being more disciplined and focused when it comes to paper-chasing, they tend to outshine our  male counterparts in the educational pursuit for a better future.

More than 60% of our tertiary  places go to our women folks and in this new-age globalised economy, if you job search without a degree its like going around with a gun without a bullet.

The explosion of the financial industry here also means that our women folks studying finance-related degrees are hotly sought after especially in the consumer banking sector. Private bankers are also mostly women and male employees are a rare sight in this lucrative industry.

Large international offshore banks have relocated to Singapore recently and the hiring has being anything but aggressive. Sad to say, many of the employment benefits foreign talents especially for those who specialise in the IT industry.

Nevertheless, the consumer banking sector understandably hires mainly female financial consultants as it is mostly a service job which  needs alot of soft skills.

Rich wealthy men with millions to invest also prefer to be served by a  young female advisor.

I knew about this hiring phenomenon when someone from the finance industry, who is in his early 30s and still struggling with unemployment,  related to me that a charming female ex colleague of his was rehired within the same month when they resigned together from a local bank.

As for him,  he attended several interviews and rejection calls of  ”You are over-qualified” or “Your salary expectation is too high”, resonated so regularly that he has decided to look at the emigration route out of his misery.

Reservist duty liability of men

I have also heard that employers preferred to hire women due to the reservist liabilities of our male workers.

Every male in Singapore has to serve a 13-year reservist cycle of which five have to be high-key attachment i.e. more than 14-days continuous liability and may involve overseas exercise.

I remembered I was posted to Taiwan thrice for exercises when I was serving as a reservist and though I was a civil servant then I could imagine the mayhew it would have cause for many if they are high up in their corporate responsibility ladder.

Though employers have to deal with the 4-month maternity leave enjoyed by  our women folks when they give birth, the low birth rate here means that it is an uncoommon inconvenience which employers will have to weigh the risk with when they hire women workers.

As Singapore continues to generate more work in the service industry, this will benefit the women workers immensely as most office-related service jobs are taken up by women.

Moreover, women usually do not take on the role of breadwinners as men do and they can accept a lower salary offer than men. 

Employers also realise that if they offer $2000 to a male graduate  who is married, he will most likely reject the offer but the female candidate may bite at it as she works more for her own needs and do not have to really provide as much to the household than her husband.

That is probably why I heard of many female graduates working for ridiculously low pay of between $1700 to $2500 and some are local graduates.

Sunset semi-con industry hits our male engineers  badly

The fact that many of our men belonged to the sunset industry of the once-lucrative semi-con business also contributed to this employment mismatch. How can you retrain and upgrade the skills of an ex-engineer and still manage to help him get a job in a new industry that pays close to $5000?

Its an impossible  situation  that no government in the world can do well with.

Many semi-con companies have either packed their bags to somewhere else cheaper or closed down altogether due to the intense competition and low price margin.

Of course, some of our male engineers will follow where the semi-con industry goes to but not many people want to pay the price of relocation as it means a long distance relationship with their family members which carry a high chance of disintegration due to the temptation factor.

Most men I know also studied engineering in schools a decade ago and thousands  of them are retrenced during the recent 2008 global financial crisis.

I remembered back in my school days when students entering polytechnic to study engineering was considered the cream of the crop.

It was like serving national service to be an engineer then as Singapore was becoming a manufacturing hub in the 1970s.

They were all hustled into one elite class and given the best resources so that they can make it to polytechnics.

Those of us in the arts stream was also placed in one lousy class but we always envied as walked past the elite class in awe and admiration at their prowess. The  special elite class strangely was taken up mostly by guys – I could only count less than five females in the class.

Of course, many of them belonging to this class did well enough to take up further studies at polytechnics and some later studied at our local universities or moved on to overseas studies.

Our women folks on the other hand took up arts and social sciences in tertiary education and many entered the teaching, health or government sector – areas that do not face employment turbulence easily.

Civil service – led mostly by women

At least 70% of our 100,000-strong  civil service   comprised of women and more than 80% of our teachers are also women.

In most corporate offices that I visited, women formed  the bulk of the workforce whereas men are usually hired in blue-collared jobs such as  security guards, construction foremen, taxi drivers, manufacturing supervisors, property agents among others.

I have also seen many women taking on traditionally male-dominated industries such as sales and marketing and regional HQ positions.

For example, I spoke to a 30-something  female local graduate who recently job-hopped to another company with a slightly better package  - less than two months after she started to job search.

She was also hired after just one interview.

She  is a very pleasant and soft-spoken lady with extrememly good soft skills and  certainly cut-out for the sales and marketing division of any company. Her degree in science major also helps alot  as she specialises  in the pharmacetical industry.

As Singapore  struggles with a record number of high-end middle-aged  PMETs, who are usually men, let us hope that the government will take a fresh look at the needs of this group.

Upgrading will only do so much good to  this well educated experienced group who is sidelined because of their age and obselete skillsets.

Even if upgrading works, they could not survive on the low pay package that normally plagues new entry position holders.

At the tender age of mid 40s, many jobless PMETs still have financial obligation to fulfill with their familes and it will be a potential social time bomb if their needs are not properly well addressed in this rapidly  ageing society.  

Perhaps, the government should  limit employers from hiring foreign talents easily  so that our middle-aged male PMETs could have a shot at jobs in the new economy.

Fixed quota to hire only locals – PRs not included

Employers should have a fixed quota to hire only local Singaporeans as currently they can hire mainly foreigners using the dreadful EP work category.

Most employers also prefer to hire younger PRs over locals as they can be cheaper and more willing to work longer hours for the sake of their PRs.

It is perhaps for this reason that 95% of our PRs are gainfully employed and this group totals half a million – almost 25 percent of the total workforce here.

The government also allows PRs to be grouped  together with locals when they chart their unemployment statistics and this is probably why not many people believe that our unemployment figure is a mere 2%. The statistics of our jobless local PMETs are clouded out by the heavily-employed PR population here.

A walk in the central business district during lunch last month at Marina  brought forth much worries as I witnessed many young foreigners queuing up for food at the many eateries dotted over there. Many are known to be from India, Philippines. PRC China  and Myarmar.

Visits to some  companies last month also make me realised that a worker above 40 years old is a rare find these days. I could even spot out a young pretty ang moh receptionist in one of the local SME!

My 3-year stay in Sydney has make me realised also how strict employment legislation has enabled many matured workers to stay gainfully employed over there.

In fact, in some companies that I have visited, many are filled up with matured workers especially if these are from the healthcare or social work industries.

In Australia, it is an offence to state your name, race, religion, gender and only your skills and educational qualifications are required on your resume. No photo is also to be attached on the resume as it is deemed discriminatory.

Conclusion

To resolve the problem of this enraged group of   male jobless middle aged PMETs, our labour legislation needs to be improved and hopefully when Minister of State Tan Chuan Jit relooks the Employment Act for tweaking soon, he will look into this aspect.

Its frankly pointless also to have a good-looking  legislation on record when companies continue to flout the employment act without any repercussion other than a verbal warning.

They should instead be shamed  in public for deterrance purposes and even penalised heavily so that others will toe the line.

If not, the bitter cries of this large group of middle-aged educated jobseekers will one day endanger the social fabric of this wonderful country.

Written by: Gilbert Goh

I remembered that it was one fateful night in December – I could not sleep despite my exhaustion.

At the back of my mind, I kept thinking about work for no apparent reason.

I wasn’t doing too badly at work but there was this tension within me and the persistent worry about how I performed at work.

I  kept wondering about my probation and whether I would be confirmed.

This was my first full time job after graduation and I wouldn’t want to blow it.

Before that, I have  been freelancing or working on contracts. I did not want to quit easily as it took me a while to find the  full time job.

Later on, I started to hear comments about my work performance from my colleagues.

I ignored them as I don’t treat comments seriously, however, the comments started to escalate as the days went by. 

It was also difficult to distinguish whether the comments were actually made by them or that they originated  from my head!

Naturally, I got stressed and distracted from my job.  I was also frightened…

My brain started to freeze and I repeatedly forgot to do things. My supervisor and colleagues took notice of my performance and strange behavior.

I reckoned they knew something was wrong about me and  I hope this  was a passing phase  as my mind had  told me  so.

I was removed from my work tasks quietly as my work performance was affected by the battle I had with myself.  

I subsequently withdrew from my lunch group and ate silently on my own.

I could sense that  the battle was really inside me than at the work place.

I wanted the commentary game to end because the voices had followed me for twenty four  hours every day.  It was pure torture to say the least.

I am scared but I do not tell anybody because I expected people around me to know that I was been stalked.

I also started to throw tantrums in the office because of the mood swings.

Surprisingly, my supervisor asked me to see a doctor because she said I was careless and needed to have a medical checkup. Later on, they even arranged a psychologist for me to consult.

Still, I thought there was nothing wrong with me.

The voice later  asked me to quit my job  and to stop the game.

I did it out of compliance. Everybody thought something was wrong with me by now.

My father shook his head repeatedly as he knew that  I was simply not the rash type to quit a job hastily.

Fortunately, over time, the voice grew weaker after I quit my job but it did not end.

Suddenly, I took note of what my supervisor had said which  confirmed my suspicion – those voices I heard were actually mine!!!

But still, I really hoped that it was just only a game and  all this madness will vanish suddenly…and I will be well again.

Finally, I told my family members about my illness. They were upset as if I have borne the family curse.

For me, I have to make a lot of adjustments and   lower down my career expectations.  There is also the fear that my illness will be a hindrance to my job search.

I realised that employers here do not take kindly to jobseekers with mental illness. Sometimes, they shun them like the plague.

I was subsequently treated at the costly Gleneagles before moving over to Alexandra hospital for treatment. I was detected with psychosis – a common  kind of mental illness.

The medical dictionary defines  psychosis as:

Psychosis is a symptom or feature of mental illness typically characterized by radical changes in personality, impaired functioning, and a distorted or nonexistent sense of objective reality.

The hospital visits were bi-weekly because the side effects of the medication were strong- stiffness in my movement and restlessness.

It took  many weeks for the voice to fade away  and right now I can resume my normal activities again.

However,  I feel worthless every day because I depended on the  medication to get well and more importantly I have  no job.

I do not know what to do with my own life right now.

Nevertheless, my illness has actually helped me to realize the important things in life – health and family - things that money can’t buy. 

I just hope that I  have the courage to move on after  all these dark clouds…and hopefully there is an employer out there who is  kind enough to offer me a job despite my illness.

Written by: Emily

Editor’s Note: I have met up with the writer and  if there is a kind employer out there who is willing to interview Emily  for a job vacancy please email me at gilbert@transitioning.org.  Mental illness is curable through medication and many people have led  normal lives after that. If you are currently suffering from some mental illness, do write to me and share your experiences. All mails received will be treated with strictest confidentiality.

Hi Gilbert, 

Thanks very much for the work done in transitioning! 

Step One

Stop comparing yourself with other people. There will always be some people who have more than you and some who have less. If you play the comparison game, you’ll run into too many “opponents” you can’t defeat.

Step Two

Stop putting yourself down. You can’t develop high self-esteem if you repeat negative phrases about yourself and your abilities. Whether speaking about your appearances, your career, your relationships, your financial situation, or any other aspects of your life, avoid self-deprecating comments.

Step Three

Accept all compliments with “thank you.” Ever received a compliment and replied,” Oh, it was nothing.” When you reject a compliment, the message you give yourself is that you are not worthy of praise. Respond to all compliments with a simple Thank You.”

Step Four

Use affirmations to enhance your self-esteem. On the back of a business card or small index card, write out a statement such as “I like and accept my self.” or “I am valuable, lovable person and deserve the best in life.” Carry the card with you. Repeat the statement several times during the day, especially at night before going to bed and after getting up in the morning. Whenever you say the affirmation, allow yourself to experience positive feelings about your statement.

Step Five

Take advantage of workshops, books and cassette tape programs on self-esteem. Whatever material you allow to dominate mind will eventually take root and affect your behavior. If you watch negative television programs or read newspaper reports of murders and business rip off; you will grow cynical and pessimistic. Similarly, if you read books or listen to programs, that are positive in nature, you will take on these characteristics.

Step Six

Associate with positive, supportive people. When you are surrounded by negative people who constantly put you and your ideas down, your self-esteem is lowered. On the other hand, when you are accepted and encouraged, you feel better about yourself in the best possible environment to raise your self-esteem.

Step Seven

Make a list of your past successes. This doesn’t necessarily have to consist of monumental accomplishments. It can include your “minor victories,” like learning to skate, graduating from high school, receiving an award or promotion, reaching a business goal, etc. Read this list often. While reviewing it, close your eyes and recreate the feelings of satisfaction and joy you experienced when you first attained each success.

Step Eight

Make a list of your positive qualities. Are you honest? Unselfish? Helpful? Creative? Be generous with yourself and write down at least 20 positive qualities. Again, it’s important to review this list often. Most people dwell on their inadequacies and then wonder why their life isn’t working out. Start focusing on your positive traits and you’ll stand a much better chance of achieving what you wish to achieve.

Step Nine

Start giving more. I’m not talking about money. Rather, I mean that you must begin to give more of yourself to those around your. When you do things for others, you are making a positive contribution and you begin to feel more valuable, which, in turn, lifts your spirits and raises your own self-esteem.

Step Ten

Get involved in work and activities you love. It’s hard to feel good about yourself if your days are spent in work you despise. Self-esteem flourishes when you are engaged in work and activities that you enjoy and make you feel valuable. Even if you can’t explore alternative career options at the present time, you can still devote leisure time to hobbies and activities, which you find stimulating and enjoyable.

Step Eleven

Be true to yourself. Live your own life – not the life others have decided is best for you. You’ll never gain your own respect and feel good about yourself if you aren’t leading the life you want to lead. If you’re making decisions based on getting approval from friends and relatives, you aren’t being true to yourself and your self-esteem is lowered.

Step Twelve

Take action! You won’t develop high self-esteem if you sit on the sidelines and back away from challenges. When you take action – regardless of the ensuing result – you feel better about yourself. When you fail to move forward because of fear and anxiety, you’ll be frustrated and unhappy – and you will undoubtedly deal a damaging blow to your self-esteem.

Our government is trying to bring in at least 20,000 new citizens each year in the hope of arresting the low birth rate here.

 Transitioning is carrying out a qualitative survey on the views of  local Singaporeans affected by  this move.

 _______________

 Transitioning (T): First of all, Diana,  thanks for taking part in this online interview – can you state your age, marital status, educational qualifications and work experience?

Diana (D): >50 years old, married, Masters degrees, >20 years managerial and >10 years teaching experiences.

 T: Do you agree with the government’s stand to bring in 20,000 new citizens each year to stem the current low birth rate here? Why so?

D: No as these new citizens may bring in their aged parents and they themselves would grow old as well. There is also no guarantee that the new citizens would stay permanently in Singapore since this country has always been seen as a transit stop by foreigners.

T: What do you think the government can do alternatively instead of bringing in fresh foreign citizens to beef up the population?

D: The government should and could acknowledge that past policies and societal demands from a top-down governance system have negatively impacted on our birth rate. Hence, the onus is that a proactive and effective government should identify, accept and work towards remedying the ills of such policies through creating a conducive and sustainable environment for families to thrive.

T: Many Singaporeans have cry foul with the ease foreigners has in attaining permanent resident status and then citizenship later on, what are some of the measures you hope to see so that the immigration process can be further tightened up?

D: The government should stringently evaluate their criteria for awarding permanent residency and citizenship to quality (by international standards not present standards we currently have). Foreigners who can sincerely demonstrate their intention to make Singapore their adopted home rather than to treat this country like a transient place are welcomed here.

T: Many netizens have also commented that bringing in large numbers of foreign citizens is one of the sinister plot of the government to convert them into loyal voters for the next general election in 2016, do you agree with this statement? Why so?

D: Yes because these grateful new citizens who may have been led to believe that they have been extremely well treated and rewarded by the government as compared to perhaps the harsh governance system of their birth country.

T: Our government has being asking Singaporeans to accept and help foreigners assimilate into our culture, do you think this is happening now? What are some of the things you hope to see plan out with regard to social integration programmes?

D: NO since successful integration is a two-way process and right now it appears as if the host country nationals (meaning native Singaporeans) are the ones having to integrate with the newcomers rather than the foreigners assimilating with the locals.

For the social integration programmes to work, there must be reciprocity on both sides with the natives benefitting rather than being shortchanged by such programmes.

T: On a personal level, how are you affected by the influx of foreigners into our midst and what is the maximum number of foreigners you want to see living in our country at any one time?

D: Very much affected by the influx which had contributed to a poor quality of living – overcrowding, appearance of new diseases, frequent breakdowns of public transport, lack of space and antisocial behaviour which is not the norm in Singapore but may be the norm in these foreigners’ home country.

T: Many people have commented that our government should do more to help our young couples give birth given the chronic work stress and high cost of living here, do you agree with this? Why so?

D: Yes I believe so since young couples are too stressed and limited by time to procreate. The escalating costs of living have also made couples even more reluctant to procreate for a stressful and materialistic society governed by treating its people like robots.

 T: What are some of the other areas you want our government to look into in the area of birth issue?

D: Changes in our society and the government to be less materialistic and more humane.

More incentives for couples to procreate with family friendly policies.

A society that values and support family and children.

T: Lastly, do you believe that our country is in one of the worst post-war period now and that the next few years will be tough for Singaporeans given the intense competition for employment due to the huge foreign influx and fight for physical space?

D: Yes I believe so and as we fight for more space, jobs, houses and schools, our quality of life will deteriorate to an unhealthy and unacceptable level.

Thank you and end of interview.