By Edmund Lim –
Whoever saves one life, saves the entire world: SMRT Driver brings up many abuses by our tyrannical bosses in Singapore.
It is not just the bus drivers who are being abused. White collar workers in general have also suffered under the cruel torture of Singapore bosses.
Singapore bosses have been ranked the most stingy. It is not just in terms of monetary terms but also in terms of praise, promotion and a widening divide between Singapore bosses and workers. Our unions are simply not doing their work and we are usually labelled as trouble-makers if we go to the unions or complain too much in front of colleagues.
As a result, employers continue their abuse because we just can't get our act together. Some employees also don't mind being exploited because they can get into the good books of their bosses as a way of sucking up!
In my previous workplace, my female boss even went the extra mile by spending her own money to buy D24 durians in Geylang to get into my director's good books during an office party celebration! Naturally, she was very nice to him. But when it came to managing her subordinates, she would be a shrew and would blame us for anything that went wrong instead of protecting us or motivating us.
We have read about how accountants have to work almost 20 hours a day if they land themselves in a job in the big 4 accounting firms. We have also read numerous accounts of how some Singapore organisations (including government stat board) who promote their staff in name title only but no increase in their salaries but with added responsibilities.
It seems to me that in the quest to please customers, to increase efficiency and to reach the quota for audit purposes or sales target, Singapore bosses have treated workers as expandable and disposable.
We have watched many a drama unfold when the lid was blown on so many bosses and high ranking superiors on their corrupt acts to CPIB. With people fighting for scarce resources, more infighting will continue and it will likely tear the social fabric apart in Singapore if there is no consensus to bridge the widening divide.
