Dear The Real Singapore,
I am writing in to let you know how much I have learnt after I was retrenched briefly last year for almost 8 months.
Although I voted for the PAP in the last elections, it made me realise that their growth-at-all-cost model has a very negative impact on the middle-aged employees and there is really no safety net to fall back on. I am now proud to say that I have woken up from their lies and nonsense.
I am currently a 37 year-old diploma holder. For almost past 7 years, I have been working for a small construction company which specialises in renovating HDB flats. Although the pay wasn't high, I stayed on for that long because the company was a very close-knitted one.
The best part of the company is that boss treated the 5 of us like family and we had a very clear picture of how the company was doing. We were promised 20% of the company's nett profit as bonuses and even knew how much each other was earning because the accounts were open. Employees didn't mind as most knew each other for a long time and we were like family.
Things were going very well until a new boss took over the company when the existing owner decided to retire. He sold the business for $650,000 to a rich Malaysian who wanted to use it to expand his construction business from JB. When he took over, he complained that all of us were slow and incompetent and how Sinkies are stupid and lazy.
He later replaced me and another 2 colleagues with his own staff from Malaysia, who rode motorbikes to Singapore to work for 60% of the pay he was giving us. It was only because of the dependency ratio that he didn't change all of us.
During my time unemployed, I was fortunate as I stay at Serangoon and there was a warehouse operated by FJ Benjamin who only hired local staff and I was very privileged to work there as a warehouse assistant for $6.50 an hour for 10 hours a day.
I browsed employment websites in and sent my resumes in the evening while taking unpaid leaves to attend interviews. I was so ashamed that I didn't dare to tell my parents. After giving them $600 in allowance, you can imagine how little I had left, barely enough to pay for my phone bills.
I later learnt that another colleague couldn't stand his bullying and left and he replaced her with a part-timer SIM student who was working only 12 hours a week to reply to customer queries via email and simple bookkeeping.
I have since managed to find a job as an executive at a design and printing company, but with a 15% pay cut. I am okay with this since I have always been low maintenance, but then my case is probably better than many others who face more repression.
After this incident, I realise that job security is not something we can take for granted and salute you for your efforts. Keep up the good work and I hope to see you speak up for more average Singaporeans since the Straits Times does not bother giving the real truth and only wants to portray Singapore in a good light.
Yours Sincerely,
Tyler
TRS Contributor