[h=2]Modern slavery employed by Singapore companies[/h]
August 4th, 2012 |
Author: Contributions
My good friend in Singapore was angry.
He told us he was discriminated for not working extended hours. His official office hours was the standard 0800hrs to 1800hrs in Singapore. Like many organisations, his own believed in staff working beyond their hours to prove they were team players. For many years, my good buddy worked like a horse for his company, with complains but never compromising on work standards. He was a reliable, hardworking, honest worker any company could ask for.
A couple of years down the road, my friend would have devoted a decade to this company. According to him, his salary had been stagnant for years. Any adjustments had been meagre, way lagging behind inflation. In his 20s, he could overlook that but at his prime at near mid 30s, he saw a dire future far from his expected goals if he continued to run things at present rate. He decided to take on a second job as a private tuition teacher.
With good credentials as an ex-teacher, he was able to command a knightly rate of S$60/hr for his trouble. That was a good wage by any standard, a rate that even an experienced tradesman in Australia could not always obtain. Any extra hours put in on top of the day job would impair social and personal time for the definite but what had to be done had to be done. As a married man and a new HDB flat owner, there were more bills to pay, more responsibilities to carry. His sacrifice almost doubled his gross salary. I applaud him for making a breakthrough after so many years and wished him good luck for establishing a foothold so that he could ditch his day job if required to.
All seemed well until his company groused. Addicted to his unpaid overcommitment over the years, the company expected the same but received none. The management was angry. My buddy was angry because his management was angry.
“If they want my time, they’ve gotta pay for it and they wouldn’t be able to afford me if I bill them,” he declared.
He was not wrong. A fair wage for a fair day’s job. My friend did nothing wrong and should not be penalised in whatsoever form. What did the management really meant when they told staff that, that was their official hours but they were expected to work extra hours should they be required to? It meant, “We are cheapos and we are going to exploit you and we expect you to be exploited else we will find someone else to exploit.” Productivity is one thing but being cheap is another. Modern slavery uses fear and emotional blackmail. Why don’t they just physically whip us? Too cheap to buy a good whip? I sincerely hope none of you work in an organisation like my buddy here.
We were told we were lazy if we knocked off at our contracted time everyday. What was the point of having an official working hours if it was never the intended expectation of us? Imagine the school starting to fail students for scoring 50 points in exams because they were expected to score higher. Warped logic. Should we comply with nonsense? We did anyway, collectively, for whatever reasons best known to ourselves. My wife for example worked herself tired till 0300hrs in the office, 4 months pregnant with our first born. Is work so enchanting in Singapore that a woman would choose it over her motherly duties? I fail to understand that the Singapore society view alcoholics with disdain but approve of workaholics. Both suggest compulsive mental impairment.
Why do we worship workaholism in Singapore? Because unfinished work claims souls if we leave them be? Because health abuse and family neglect should be celebrated? Let’s not go into the time management crap. No one can conjure the 25th hour with any time management framework known to man. Whatever time you lost to overcommitment of work, stays lost.
We talked about productivity all the time. Do Singaporeans really know what that means? Productivity is the ratio of the output vs input. It means how fast you drive, not how far you drive. It is about producing more within the same stipulated time. What does extending office hours got to do with improving productivity? How else can we improve our productivity if we don’t start setting a time limit to our task? Instead of forcing ourselves to be inventive, we choose to produce more by grinding a few extra hours away each day. The last time we checked, Singaporeans has the longest working hours in the world [link]. How far more do we want to go?
The manufacturing era of Singapore, aka the golden age behind our miracle story, is history. A decade has came and gone but we are still holding to our old methods and work beliefs. We lost a decade of opportunity to reinvent ourselves. While productivity wanes, we choose to be cheaper by injecting foreign antibodies and praying for recovery. The workaholism we worship will not respond to our prayers this time round.
.
A Singaporean in Australia
* The author blogs at http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com
My good friend in Singapore was angry.
He told us he was discriminated for not working extended hours. His official office hours was the standard 0800hrs to 1800hrs in Singapore. Like many organisations, his own believed in staff working beyond their hours to prove they were team players. For many years, my good buddy worked like a horse for his company, with complains but never compromising on work standards. He was a reliable, hardworking, honest worker any company could ask for.
A couple of years down the road, my friend would have devoted a decade to this company. According to him, his salary had been stagnant for years. Any adjustments had been meagre, way lagging behind inflation. In his 20s, he could overlook that but at his prime at near mid 30s, he saw a dire future far from his expected goals if he continued to run things at present rate. He decided to take on a second job as a private tuition teacher.
With good credentials as an ex-teacher, he was able to command a knightly rate of S$60/hr for his trouble. That was a good wage by any standard, a rate that even an experienced tradesman in Australia could not always obtain. Any extra hours put in on top of the day job would impair social and personal time for the definite but what had to be done had to be done. As a married man and a new HDB flat owner, there were more bills to pay, more responsibilities to carry. His sacrifice almost doubled his gross salary. I applaud him for making a breakthrough after so many years and wished him good luck for establishing a foothold so that he could ditch his day job if required to.
All seemed well until his company groused. Addicted to his unpaid overcommitment over the years, the company expected the same but received none. The management was angry. My buddy was angry because his management was angry.
“If they want my time, they’ve gotta pay for it and they wouldn’t be able to afford me if I bill them,” he declared.
He was not wrong. A fair wage for a fair day’s job. My friend did nothing wrong and should not be penalised in whatsoever form. What did the management really meant when they told staff that, that was their official hours but they were expected to work extra hours should they be required to? It meant, “We are cheapos and we are going to exploit you and we expect you to be exploited else we will find someone else to exploit.” Productivity is one thing but being cheap is another. Modern slavery uses fear and emotional blackmail. Why don’t they just physically whip us? Too cheap to buy a good whip? I sincerely hope none of you work in an organisation like my buddy here.
We were told we were lazy if we knocked off at our contracted time everyday. What was the point of having an official working hours if it was never the intended expectation of us? Imagine the school starting to fail students for scoring 50 points in exams because they were expected to score higher. Warped logic. Should we comply with nonsense? We did anyway, collectively, for whatever reasons best known to ourselves. My wife for example worked herself tired till 0300hrs in the office, 4 months pregnant with our first born. Is work so enchanting in Singapore that a woman would choose it over her motherly duties? I fail to understand that the Singapore society view alcoholics with disdain but approve of workaholics. Both suggest compulsive mental impairment.
Why do we worship workaholism in Singapore? Because unfinished work claims souls if we leave them be? Because health abuse and family neglect should be celebrated? Let’s not go into the time management crap. No one can conjure the 25th hour with any time management framework known to man. Whatever time you lost to overcommitment of work, stays lost.
We talked about productivity all the time. Do Singaporeans really know what that means? Productivity is the ratio of the output vs input. It means how fast you drive, not how far you drive. It is about producing more within the same stipulated time. What does extending office hours got to do with improving productivity? How else can we improve our productivity if we don’t start setting a time limit to our task? Instead of forcing ourselves to be inventive, we choose to produce more by grinding a few extra hours away each day. The last time we checked, Singaporeans has the longest working hours in the world [link]. How far more do we want to go?
The manufacturing era of Singapore, aka the golden age behind our miracle story, is history. A decade has came and gone but we are still holding to our old methods and work beliefs. We lost a decade of opportunity to reinvent ourselves. While productivity wanes, we choose to be cheaper by injecting foreign antibodies and praying for recovery. The workaholism we worship will not respond to our prayers this time round.
.
A Singaporean in Australia
* The author blogs at http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com
