Do you think Singaporeans are overworked?

@knuckles1087

9 ай бұрын

Coming from an Australian expat who spent 12 months there. YES!!! I remember I was working with a Singaporean. I had a understand of the work she was doing (I was IT, she was purchasing). She was still doing things at 5pm when I left the office and I asked her what are you doing? She said she needed to finish something off. But this thing was time sensitive, there was NO need to stay past 5pm, she could of come in the next day and finish it. The mentality of what I understood is. If someone else is in the office, I need to stay back. If the boss is in the office I need to stay back. This is all WRONG. If you have completed what needs to be completed, go home and spend time with family and friends

@knuckles1087

9 ай бұрын

Also this is coming from before covid around 2015

@aispryn

9 ай бұрын

@@knuckles1087I feel like during COVID people started working from home and also assume that people are always online since then… also the bosses and even teachers like to send messages even at 12am plus which is bothersome

The lady is right....busy but not productive. At alot of my workplaces, that's exactly what I observed, people 'busy' but spend half the time chitchatting or on their phones etc then complain work very long. I have a similar line of thought to her, give 100% during work hours, then use the free time I 'earned' to do the stuff I want to. But like guy in pink highlighted, workplace culture and/or boss is a big factor. Doesn't matter if you work hard, if boss can't discern based on output.

@siminkuo7916

9 ай бұрын

Presenteeism is very common I think.

@JJ15975

9 ай бұрын

It depends on the working culture. Many times, high productivity is rewarded with more work. Workers are then discouraged from being productive since it is not going to benefit them.

Singapore has very disruptive work culture whereby you cannot focus on your work. There are constantly streams of ad-hoc coming into your work everyday and that ends up extending your work hours. And some bosses loves to assign task just before they leave so likely these are the ones that get to be "productive" coz someone else is doing their jobs and boss won't see it...

Yeah, I'm currently studying in Australia and if I end work at 5pm, my boss tells me to leave at 5pm. There's no guilt tripping and all that, as long as the work is done productively, how long it takes isn't a reflection of quality. I stayed from 10am to 12am at work in Singapore and nothing good was done. Hope people realise quality over quantity, especially towards older people who aren't as physically fit as those younger

@joesr31

3 ай бұрын

Australia is on another level though, I could barely find any take out after 5pm as well. Good for the workers, but frustrating for others who want things done quickly

3:39 Many of us wanted to get it over and done with, but the problem is "if" we do it quick, your superior will expect more from you or even faster. You finish your job? here's more! and we're paying the same as your colleagues that finishes the same job but took longer. Yes, your superior might "promote" you but most of the time the increment to workload isn't worth it. Pretty sure until here there will be people saying "this means that your company or superior is the problem, just change job!" easier said than done, eventually after a few years, these type of work culture will still come back no matter the workplace. Some superior even try and micromanage your "free time". Sometimes, when you do it quicker than your peers, they will tend to outcast you because you trying to "spoil market", so you will always have to balance things out.

@knock-knockwhosthere9933

9 ай бұрын

You've squeezed every word outta my brain🤓

@alui5362

9 ай бұрын

got an idea for you - when u finish ur work alr, don't submit yet lah. hold it first. act like u still working on it, but actually u chilling.

@dark8759

9 ай бұрын

@@alui5362 ya haha, need to be stealthy, wfh is easier but in office sometimes damn tired of "pretending to work" ahahaha 😂

omg all those poor fools who said something along the lines of "oh but it's not my boss' fault cos the matter is truly urgent...client needed it" etc were successfully gaslighted by their employers. If you are in a situation where you feel time pressure - it IS the fault of your employer for failing to hire enough manpower and/or overpromising to the client! It is *not* a case of "can't be helped". Always take a step back and see who systemically allows such overtime situations to occur in the first place. Do NOT be gaslighted by your capitalist overlords!

My problem is that when I arrive at my desk at 8.30am, I already want to knock off and go home.

i think one industry that's overlooked at is F&B. their demands are high for way too many reasons; client meetings? F&B. paktor? F&B. family breakfast/brunch/lunch/dinner/SUPPER? F&B. most of them even overwork till the extent that they're in the kitchen for more hours than they sleep. overall, they're just under appreciated for their 60-70 hours/week commitment.

I think as long as you’re “overworking” cause of your choice (for example you want to finish a project quicker, you want to enjoy a holiday/break without worrying about work etc), it should be fine. But being unnecessarily overworked is a bad thing, especially when you actually have time. I know some of my friends whose bosses asked them to finish a job quicker than the deadlines even though it’s unnecessary to do so 😅 Agreed with the lady, busy but unproductive!

I was really bracing myself for a controversial opinion, but they seem to be able to answer it well, like the 3rd and 5th one, the older generation ones, because they are usually the ones blamed for creating this overworked culture. On the other side of the spectrum, the younger generations are mostly branded as lazy and not "driven" enough. Speaking of "driven" it's so interesting that the last guy used that term instead of "overworked", he's the glass half full kinda guy.

Super surprised to hear that Korea is more “chill” in the sense he mentioned. Always thought that conditions are pretty terrible there lol.

Hope TSL didnt overwork Zhin to do this video 😂

Singapore feels rushed... impatient perhaps. Similar to Hong Kong... they can't wait for things to happen. They need to make things happen, if not they will see themselves as a failure. You can say this is because of the company culture and bla bla bla all that... No. This is beyond it. It seeps into their own personal life expectations too.

The lady on the right in the first interview speaks with sense and maturity. Lucky employee to have.

I agree not all the time used during work was productive. I was working in an accounting firm and most of the working hours were mainly waiting for clients' documents and the client only gave them to us at 5pm and then left. This makes us work until 10pm every day. If you think these jobs overwork, you have not seen auditor work-life yet. During my peak period, I work from 8:30 a.m. to 3 a.m. Off-peak, I work from 8:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. This is the norm in the industry.

once you hit your 30s if you overworked for a couple of days the burnout really kicks in strong. and it takes a few days to recover...and worst this can develop HBP and that's it you can never overwork again...

I would like to raise a point regarding what the man said in 09:27. He mentioned in response to the question whether it is a problem Singaporeans are overworked with “not necessarily because those who want to overwork themselves can overwork themselves”. I think this reveals the fundamental problem in our culture where we mistake self-value dysmorphia (will explain later in my analogy) as drive. The idea of “overwork” comes from doing additional work beyond what we need to do. The motivation for doing additional work can be from external forces such peer pressure, work environment, shitty boss, etc. It is when the worker feels inadequate with the work they have done and chooses to do more because of external forces. Whereas drive comes within the individual wanting to achieve something. One simple analogy I can think of is a guy going to the gym. There is a difference between a guy working out because he wants to look hella jacked as compared to a guy suffering from muscle dysmorphia. Though they seemed very “driven” on the surface, their reasons are very different and it can result very different behavioral choices. The guy who wants to look good may want to look good for a longer period of time and focus on working out consistently or his diet. The guy with muscle dysmorphia would have a fixation on the muscles and might be tempted to take steroids in order to achieve his muscles goals. Admittedly, this is an analogy for illustration of how the inner motivation can have different behaviors. Coming back to the difference between self value dysmorphia and drive. When the environment is as driven as Singapore work culture and the individual struggles to keep up, that is overwork. It is very different from drive. Thank you for coming to my TED talk. ❤

singaporean work culture is really a race to the bottom.. whoever works longest hours = best employee leave work on time = frowned upon

It’s all about making sure boss man know you working, so we all work harder not smarter. So much effort for so little done sometimes.

The lady who previous had worked in London, oh how I wish like that for all of in England, but if you work for the National Health Service like I do, then a typical work shift for a nurse is 08:00am to 20:30pm, or 20:00pm to 08:00am the next morning, and we're contracted as a standard of minimum of 37.5 hours per week, but always end up going above that limit into overtime, usually between 50 to 60 hours per week, but then you have to be capped to have a certain rest time period for 24 hours at least before you can work the next shift

@thisiszw

9 ай бұрын

but you do get paid for overtime right? most singaporeans, especially office workers, don't.

@MED-fe1qt

9 ай бұрын

I completely agree with you @RobertHeslop That was my own experience with the NHS, and my own experience now in healthcare. In Singapore however, nurses in the private sector are demanding more pay but want to work less. They don’t want to work weekends or evenings. They are calculative to a fault, unwilling to come in early or stay on late EVEN with overtime pay. They want to come in and leave at the same time as patients. You can’t criticise them in any way or they will throw a hissy fit and leave. They’re an embarrassment. THIS is the younger generation of Singaporeans. Everyone wants to be an influencer or work from home as a “creative”. Or they want to be a banker. More money but less work is their ultimate goal. It’s really disgusting given that a lot of us have to work hard for demanding clients and patients.

Just go to cbd and take a look at the office works taking coffee/smoke breaks. Nothing against it, but using those breaks to wrap up work and go home early, I think is great.

@user-gv3ci1kl2j

15 күн бұрын

Ya.... it is exactly those slackers, that's why the others are overworking to cover them.

The people who are overworking have no time to do this interview 😂

We all are. Even after working 730am, to close 12am, (suppose to be 9-6) just so to finish a job that they overpromise client, what do workers get in return? Eh not good enough, not creative enough.... when they are the ones play big part in why whole company quit and every year i get new teammates. So yeah. Overwork also is when you go home and you're a caretaker. Its hard.....

If a person work non stop for this many hours on a regular basis , there’s only 3 reasons. (1) the company has serious problems (2) the person is not efficient (3) the person is not effectively using the time

Too many WhatsApp working groupchats that doesn’t respect boundaries … I try my best to give my team their personal time and space after hours unless super urgent

As an employee, working long hours is simply means low productivity and poor time management.

yea so many people I see are busy but not productive. swiping tiktok, smoking etc distractions for 30% of the work time... of course they are going need to OT to make up the work. If people 100% on work during work hours then a lot of OT can be avoided. but i also know people who do it on purpose cos some companies have OT pay.

Hmm if singapore wants to uphold the overwork culture during office hours, i suggest job should be more of work from home basis and kept at 4 days work week. It's all about give and take however some companies are just plain old selfish.

I used to work in audit industry. Sometime, is just that people like to chit chat during working hour, took 2 hrs lunch break. Then they OT till midnight. Some people care just tie to the culture of the industry and think OT is a norm in the industry. I do agree that we still need to do OT if deadline is tight. But tbh, it also depends how your work.

@bensumw

6 ай бұрын

But why agree to a tight deadline in the first place ? Surely, the team knows how long is required to deliver. So if there is a tight deadline, then the team needs to be bring in more resources to share the workload in order to meet the deadline surely ? But that never happens because the decision maker who agrees to the tight deadline often never consults with the team that is actually on the ground performing the work to deliver. Separately, because its the norm for OT in the industry, so people stretch it out (like you say, chit chat, longer lunch break). Even if you are efficient and complete your work without needing to OT, because everyone else is staying on, then it looks bad when you leave on time. The culture is so ingrained and there is no incentive to change that from the top because they benefit from that culture. The reward for hard work and efficiency is more work. So eventually you will learn to not show your hand that you are efficient.

@jhow8990

6 ай бұрын

@@bensumw First thing first, diff ppl had diff role in a company. An audit partner (decision maker) main purpose is to bring in clients to make profit for the company. Whether there is enough resource will depend on the managerial partner and HR. Most company purpose is to make more profit and not to make sure their staffs had a work life balance. Welcome to the world of Corporate. I agreed that there is no reason to stay OT when you already done your work and other ppl is still working. You can choose to leave but do take note that some colleague might judge you. If you are ok and able to take up the peer pressure, you can leave on time. For me, it depends on the team, if the team OT because they spend too much time talking during lunch hour, chit chat, or came late, i will just leave after i did my stuff. But if it is really tight deadline, then i will stay and ask them if they need help. But of course, if you are the PIC for the audit, it will not be very nice for you to leave and ask your team to stay and OT right? So really depend on the situation. And on your judgemental call.

to the 1st pair of ladies, especially to the lady in white. you seem to fail at identifying your workplace had a toxic work culture. No manager should, in their right mind, ask their sub to work at 8pm on a Friday night. By claiming that you should be handling this "responsibility" indicates that you have no guts to reject the workload. Your manager will love you but at the same time, not give you any promotion because you will always be the yes-man to do the extra workload at odd hours because its "urgent".

@joshualee8151

9 ай бұрын

i think the lady meant from working at home.... she doesnt mind when u start it during the day as long as its done by the end of the day... meaning she dont mind if u slept in till the afternoon if u wanted... atleast thats the message i got from it

@jhzl8499

9 ай бұрын

i honestly think it’s highly dependent on the industry an individual is in. nobody likes to work after hours, but when it happens, it happens - we unfortunately have to accept that it happens in some industry more so than others.

@ondreiii

9 ай бұрын

Cryspirit, you'll definitely find yourself in the lower hands when it comes to job market in today's climate. There's a distinct difference between hustle and toxic work environments. You're just lazy.

@cryspirit

9 ай бұрын

@@ondreiii yup. I m lazy. I find the fastest way to get things done in the shortest time possible to improve my efficiency. Working hard at 8pm on Friday night is a good worker , not a good manager.

It’s also a much a matter of personal choice. Your boss emails the team on a Fri night or weekend, A can choose not to respond, but B may choose to do so over the weekend. Over time, the boss may promote B, give him better bonuses to compensate for his sacrifice. A shouldn’t whine since A got his work life balance, whilst B values $ over time at this stage. I’m simplifying things around promo/bonus but my point is besides work culture, it’s also how we choose to live our lives. As we grow older and we have own family, people tend to value time over $.

why is the red shirt gym guy and the lady in the video at 3:08 are the same interviewees from the previous videos? city hall so many other people to ask...

Simple. Asian culture is live to work.

I wan work 4 days Sia then AL so less 😢

In short....yes. As mentioned. Total waste of time if present but unproductive working long a hours just to fit in. Noticeable with customer service in retail compared to other countries. People plainly are exhausted.

Like PM Anwar said its time for SG to reciprocate at the immigration checkpoints. I think he found out that most if our counters will be closed even after more than 50 years of independence. Anwar Boleh. Malaysia introduced WFH for civil servant many decades ago😂😂😂

take a sip of tequila everytime zhin says "yup" 🤣🤣 im just joking... dont get alcohol poisoning

Imagine asking an auditor about this 😂

Does working long hours means overworked or inefficient work ?

Hi guy in pink

Singapore 🇸🇬 government n company should change working day from 5days to 4 days work for younger people. So Younger people more chance to rest n relax n join with their friends outings inorder they have more opportunities to find their future partner. 😅Blessing 🙏👫

Being overworked is going beyond one's work requirements. Not right. We have the choice to seek another employment.

@MED-fe1qt

9 ай бұрын

You’re one of those huh. If not in the contract then you won’t do type. Job hopping. More pay demanded but less working hours and job scope?

OT is a habit, for chitchatters

@user-gv3ci1kl2j

15 күн бұрын

That's a sweeping statement. Some of us have to OT because the chitchatters colleagues are not doing their job. And the rest of the people have to cover the extra work.

I feel work life balance does not exist when you want to be successful and earn more wages. It’s just smth u have to compromise on

Toxic work culture in SG when sometime the capable ones are being rewarded with more work, covering up those who choose to slack off.

How come like interview the same people

But our PAP govt says we aren't hungry enough. How? Do you agree with PAP govt?

it's always the Singaporean boss that's the problem.

Toxic work culture in Singapore

You're asking INTERNS whether we as a nation are overworked. Wrong person bruhh..

Busy with what?

Make your work your ultimate passion and you'll never spend a day in your life working

Overwork and toxic

I work in a company that has staff from various nations. I noticed that locals have a sense of complacency and wish for work-life balance. Colleagues from other countries do not have this attitude and are willing to put in the time/effort to earn money. I may be generalising here, but that's what I've observed

@shucklesors

9 ай бұрын

look up this statistical observation called "survivorship bias"- especially used to justify erroneous pseudo science claims. try applying the same logic to the precise pool of people who have the specific drive and motivation to move away and out of their homeland to a foreign country to work. start there--wish you the best

@calvinang1

9 ай бұрын

A local businessman once told me, he has given up on hiring locals and prefers foreign hires for the very same reason you have mentioned.

@jmlee5713

9 ай бұрын

This is not a fair statement. Locals have their families here. So they would opt to spend time with their families. But for the foreign workers (generally) they are alone and they would not mind putting in more time for work. Or their objectives may be to earn more money to send home

@Saetanify

9 ай бұрын

@jmlee5713 not true. FTs can also have families here. The difference I observed is that locals have a general sense of entitlement. FTs and FWs probably feel the need to prove their worth so to speak.

@NN-br2xh

9 ай бұрын

​@@Saetanifyinteresting, I don't observe that at all. Singaporeans work really hard too without any sense of entitlement.

lol speaking as a ''creative''

Please come and interview me. I would say “No”. Younger people are deluded to think that less work and more pay is something they are entitled to because of their mental health or that they deserve this. Singaporeans are stressed because of money. They’re not stressed because of work.

@NN-br2xh

9 ай бұрын

What a hasty generalisation.

“creative” work is not real work! acting like y’all have a lot to do when all y’all do is use canva!

Omg if I hear “mental health” one more time, I’m actually going to go mental. Stress isn’t bad for mental health. It’s good in building resilience and determination. Honestly. Your channel is biased beyond belief regarding the type of entitled youth you’ve interviewed. 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻

@NN-br2xh

9 ай бұрын

I dunno, seems like the video has quite diverse opinions