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S’porean ostracised by Filipino colleagues and sacked by American boss!
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.
* Article first appeared in transitioning.org. It is a non-profit society specially set up to cater to the emotional needs of the unemployed Singaporeans
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.
* Article first appeared in transitioning.org. It is a non-profit society specially set up to cater to the emotional needs of the unemployed Singaporeans
