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My Maid Is Trying To Force A Move Back Home

My maid, who is still under her contract, is trying to force a move back. If we were to send her back while under contract with the agency, we will have to pay a sum which I think is unfair considering the way she is behaving to force us to send her back.

Here are some of the things that she does. We have 2 cats, and of course we let them roam free outside the house, she has a habit of closing the door when the cats are still outside. Whether or not purposely, I don’t know, but this is happening around twice a week.

She doesn’t clean the bedroom unless told to. She ‘sleeps’ at 10pm, earliest in the house. As some of the people in this house have school or work in the morning, we don’t expect a buffet breakfast but at least a cup of tea or coffee in the morning might be good. But she sleeps at 10pm and wake up only when she wakes up naturally. My sister who share a room with her then told me that she can’t sleep at night sometimes cause she heard the maid talking on the phone around midnight.

This wasn’t the case previously, when she started out, she was a good domestic working. Making breakfast, doing chores.

Now she takes 30 minutes to go to the grocery shop, which is 1 block away. She sits down for hours ‘reading’ cooking books(using her handphone), but will cook curry 3-4 times a week. Cooking fried rice to her means mixing sambal belacan with rice(no seasoning, no egg or any other ingredients) And worst of all, she doesn’t flush after using the toilet.

Like I said, this isn’t the case when she started off. I think she is trying to force a move back since she is unhappy here, and doing as little as possible in the house is her way of doing it. Any advice on what I can do?

Sick of Curry

TRS Contributor

Source: www.therealsingapore.com

April 17, 2015
ITE Graduate Looked Down By Interviewer Because Of Poor Qualifications

Dear All Singapore Stuff,

I’m going to share my thoughts regarding an interview with a certain company for the position of Test Technician and after the interview, I left feeling horrible, depressed and really upset. The interviewer was rude and unprofessional. I found this job opening through jobstreet.

First of all, I waited for almost an hour before the interview commenced because the HR recruitment specialist had an appointment and forgot about the interview. How convenient. That is unprofessional and they should have told me beforehand. The interviewer didn’t introduce his name, what his position was or which department here was from. So we’ll call him Mr Nice guy.

So Mr Nice guy asked me regarding my last drawn salary, from two previous companies. He asked “why is your salary low?”. I explained that I worked only for a few days during the course of the employment and probably that’s the reason why it’s not that high. Mr Nice guy wasn’t satisfied with my answer and raised his voice and said “NO NO YOU’RE NOT ANSWERING MY QUESTION”. At this point of time, I felt that this interview had gone sideways. Mr Nice guy critiqued how could I possibly work with the company if I couldn’t answer a simple question.

In the first place, is this question even relevant? You employ someone based on merit and skills, not on previous pay and I did give an answer. I’m sorry if you are not satisfied with my answer.

Mr Nice guy proceeded with the interview and I answered as best as I could, in a polite manner even though I felt like walking out the door. He was rude throughout the interview and asked me questions that are not related to the job scope. All the while he behaved in a condescending manner and constantly undermined my credibility. Mr Nice Guy kept hinting that the company is looking for “highly educated people” He seem to have a prejudice against ITE graduates like me.

The ad that they posted is misleading to future applicants on what are the required qualifications. I have met the necessary requirements. I have a Nitec in the relevant course and I have the relevant experience. The interviewer looked down on me just because I was an ITE graduate. He also continously undermined my capabilities throughout the interview and he was hinting that ITE graduates have no place in the company.

Education is very important in Singapore. But it is wrong to stereotype someone just based on his/her qualifications. Even if you are from ITE, it doesn’t make you less of a person. What does it matter if you have a PhD but you’re an asshole. Is someone deemed highly educated just based on his qualifications? Everyone should be treated equally regardless of their education. There should be no prejudice against people who has less education than you. What’s important is the attitude of someone and I believe that is what you should look for in an employee.

Mr Nice guy concluded the interview by bluntly saying that according to him, I had failed the interview because of my attitude and I wouldn’t ever get a good job in Singapore and that the way I answered his first question was unreasonable and unprofessional.

I believe he was the one who was rude and treated me with no respect. If i wanted to be interrogated I would’ve just gone to a police station. Where did he learn his interviewing skills from? He was rude and inconsiderate from the start and he didn’t even know that he was rude. He spoiled my day with his attitude. I dont have any background in human resource but i doubt that that is a how an interview should be held.

I have lodged a report with TAFEP and am currently awaiting a personal apology from the interviewer itself for being rude to me. I hope other people don’t go through what I have been through.

PS: Interviewer is a foreigner. At first I didn’t want to mention it for fear of readers having clouded judgements but due to recent cases, i thought this factor should be taken into consideration.

Disgruntled Applicant
A.S.S. Contributor

Source: www.allsingaporestuff.com

April 16, 2015
Muslim Customers Also Have The Right To Eat And Shop In A Dog-Free Environment

Aiseyman! Just because someone is visually impaired, does it gives her the right to demand access for herself and her guide dog to wherever? And when she is denied access to a shop because of her anjing she plays the victim by using her handicap status to call out the shop for discriminating her. If like that also can, then can Muslims walk into a bar and demand that they are served halal food and drinks, and when they are denied that, call the bar out on religious discrimination? If we really did that, many people will not be sympathetic to us, but they will criticise us and say that we are difficult to integrate with.

This is not the first time that the guide dog and its owner have made a big fuss over denied entries into shops and eateries. She has complained about and shamed the staff at Macdonalds, Haagen Daz, Forever 21 and now Zara. Yet her sense of entitlement is so huge that she forgets that in every transaction, there is both a buyer and a seller, and that both players have the right to accept or refuse each other. She may think that she has a right to be in the shop with her dog, but so do the Muslims who also have the right to patronise the shop. If the shop allows her dog in, what about Muslims who are averse to any contact with dogs? What about people with allergies who cannot be in contact with animal fur and dander? Can they also say that they are being discriminated against if guide dogs are allowed on their premises?

It is the shop’s perogative to control the human traffic that flows into their premises, and staff they should not be shamed for doing so in order to protect their other customers. To give another relevant example, many people don’t scream discrimination when a club bouncer refuses entry of a drunk person (to protect the drunk and others in the club) or a person who is underdressed (to maintain the club’s image).

This is not to say that people should totally turn a blind eye to those with handicap, but there should be mutual respect and give and take also right? If she really wanted to be in the shops so badly, why couldn’t she park her dog with the friend outside or use a walking stick to help her get around? Like that, I think the shops will be more than happy to serve her. But no, it seems she only wants everyone to accomodate her and her dog without sparing a thought for anyone else.

Source: www.aiseyman.com

April 16, 2015
Reasons Why Foreigners Get Jobs Over Singaporeans
Another new initiative to help Singaporean workers?

According to the Channel NewsAsia news report “New portal to prepare students for future jobs” (Apr 7) – “The one-stop portal for education, training and career information, is a key plank of the SkillsFuture initiative that seeks to help Singaporeans take ownership of their job search.”

What do employers want?

All these new initiatives to help Singaporeans find jobs and career development may not work because we do not think through what is it that most employers want?

Employers want …
- workers who are experienced, highly skilled, highly educated and intelligent
When you allow the whole world to come to Singapore as tourists to look for jobs – you don’t need to be a genius to figure out that the odds will continue to be stacked against Singaporeans – when you are competing with the best (or the worse who fake their credentials) in the world
- workers who cost less
Foreigners don’t have to contribute CPF. So, employers save up to 20 per cent on wages. And of course, foreigners may be willing to work for lesser pay than Singaporeans
- workers who do not have turnover problems
Since most foreigners are on 2-year contracts – they are mostly stuck with the same employer for at least 2 years
- less work disruption
Foreigners on work permits cannot get pregnant. So, no “4 months’ maternity leave” problems. Those on employment pass also typically come to Singapore as “singles” and so are less likely to have maternity leave

Male foreigners do not have National Service reservist training “disruptions” to work
- workers who can do very long hours of shift work
Foreigners have no choice and are more willing to accept jobs which are 12 hours or longer a day for 6 days a week

Make yourself valuable to employers?

As to the article “Make yourself valuable, even after getting your degree: Indranee Rajah” (CNA, Apr 7), which said ”The forum focused on whether a degree still matters when it comes to employment, and saw some students sharing their views on pursuing a job that is not relevant to their degree.

Ms Indranee said having skills to adapt to the changing job market will be important and it is one of the objectives of the Government’s SkillsFuture initiative.

Odds stacked against Singaporeans?

She added that the Government is hoping to change mind sets by getting people to find out what they really want to do and to get the relevant qualifications”
- how do Singaporeans make themselves more valuable to employers, when the odds are so stacked against them in favour of foreigner?
Real pay increase?

So, is it any wonder that the real starting pay of graduates has hardly increased in the last 8 years or so, and real basic, gross and total wages (excluding employer CPF contribution) have also hardly increased in the last 15 years or so?

Employ Singaporeans first?

Finally, the most telling “wayang” is perhaps that the national jobs portal under the Fair Consideration Framework to employ Singaporeans First, cannot give any statistics at all as to how many of the jobs actually went to Singaporeans!

Win battles lose war
* Submitted by TRE reader

Half the workforce not “true-blue” Singaporeans?

P.S. I went to a bank, hospital and food basement of a shopping mall one day, and almost every worker was not a Singaporean!

Source: www.tremeritus.com
April 16, 2015
Lee Hsien Loong: Racial Harmony Here An Unusual And Unnatural State Of Affairs, Need To Be Worked On Continuously

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Singaporeans of all races and religions are able to live peacefully side by side despite the fact that the country’s racial and religious harmony is an “unusual and unnatural state of affairs”.

Mr Lee spoke at a Harmony Dinner at the Singapore Expo on Wednesday evening (Apr 15), an event organised by the Taoist Federation to celebrate its Silver Jubilee.

“There are studies of different societies and there was one study called a report on ‘Global Religious Diversity’ looking at how mixed different societies were – and in fact they ranked Singapore as the most religious diverse society out of 232 countries in the world, and we were the most religiously diverse,” said Mr Lee.

“The most different religions, the most intermingled, all the world’s major faiths are present in Singapore and many smaller faiths too. And yet we enjoy racial and religious harmony, and we live peacefully and happily side by side every day,” added the Prime Minister. It is something that should be continually worked on to be preserved, he said.

Mr Lee said building a multi-racial and multi-religious society is a key ideal that Singapore was founded upon.

Quoting the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, the Prime Minister said Singapore does not belong to any single community, but to everyone. Mr Lee said the Taoist Federation worked hard to foster good relations between the different religious groups in Singapore.

All 10 constituent religions of the Inter-Religious Organisation (IRO) were also present at the Harmony Dinner, and Mr Lee called on the religious leaders to lead by example.

Said Mr Lee: “Your communities look to you as role models. How you counsel and lead your congregations, your flocks, will shape religious relations in Singapore. So I am very happy that so many of our religious leaders are committed to building trust and friendships with other communities.”

“We also of course need to keep our society open and inclusive. We can be any race, any religion, but we are also – at the same time – all Singaporeans together. And we have learnt to trust and respect our different races and religions, and to live peacefully with one another,” he said.

The IRO said racial and religious harmony is also enhanced by having more dialogues between people of various faiths.

“It is educating everyone as to what another religion has and if you have better understanding of another religion besides your own, that’s when you have a better understanding and that’s where you will have peace and harmony,” said IRO President Gurmit Singh.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

April 16, 2015