Under Different Lights

Are you living in Singapore?
If you are, then you will understand what I am about to share soon.

I have been living in Singapore since 1998 and for someone who has stayed that long, you definitely feel things have changed rapidly within this short period of time.

One of it is the increasing number of foreign talents in the retail/service industry. Sometimes it can be quite frustrating as some of them can't even communicate properly in the 2 languages that are spoken by the majority of the population - English and Mandarin.

Once, I was on a bus, seated quite near to the bus driver (nowadays they are called bus captain). When the bus made its next stop, an older gentleman, probably in his 60s boarded and asked the bus captain in English,"Does this bus go to Queensway?" The reply he got was I thick-accented Mandarin that said,"Speak Mandarin?" The older man was trying so hard to translate Queensway but to no avail he turned to me and asked me the same question. I too didn't know what is Queensway in Mandarin. But I do know this bus does head towards that direction so I assured him that he would be fine. He than thanked me and disappointedly made a remark on the "foreigner" bus captain who couldn't even serve the public properly.

It is sad, but this trend is only going up. Things are changing and there is no way things will go back to the way it used to be. From this side, things do look frustrating but have you seen another side of it? I do.

I am in retail industry and since the day I started until now, I find it so hard to find local talents to work in this industry. They are either too picky or they have better offer somewhere or they simply don't last as they don't think too highly of the job.

Then there are agencies who see opportunities in this situation and starts to introduce foreign talents to fill the void. Unfortunately, these agencies earn their living from those poor workers who sometimes are not properly matched to the job. They paid 6-9x their salary amount in advanced, putting all their trust and hope in the agents and future employer, then in most cases, they found themselves stuck in a 2 year contract that they have to serve in order to earn back the "capital". But to the unlucky few, they are sent back immediately not because they are not good in terms of attitude but due to the language barriers. They lost the $ that their family has saved so hard in order for them to have a better future. Hence, some may resort to other ways of living instead due to fear if facing their family in shame.

There are so many frustrated parties here:
- Customers who don't get the expected level of service
- Employers who don't get the suitable employees
- Employees who don't think they are in the promised land

Under different lights, they share the same life with frustrations and they share the same needs to be understood and treated fairly. But life as usual is ever changing and ever camouflaging. The next time you think how different someone is from you, we are still the same living organisms who try to make sense of life and its quirks.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad