MPs in Singapore work long hours

last SG · 2009-12-02T17:11:37+00:00

If you are diagnosed with terminal illness, the option is open to you to end you life rather than be a vegetable, PM said it is an option, he did not said y...

tan reborn SG

Local IT Talents Dying ???

When reading abt IT talents still in demand .. I can only summarised with my own experience :Our own talents no longer wants to be in this line.

Reason:

1) Pay low even with degree + certs(MCSE,CCNA)
Seriously, have classmates who are offered 2K plus.. and pay is dropping as companies are comparing with foreign talents.
Those who stayed either moved overseas or to another area with minimal involvment in IT and they are ones with best technical knowledge...

2) No career progression within the field.

Can you imagine whole project outsource to china and india??..
So where got need for managers or tech consultants developers??
They just need sales ppl with minimal knowledge and direct the rest to the overseas team.

So what r the remaining posts available ???

tan reborn SG

Local IT Talents Dying ???

whose fault your fault loh

charlize SG

Local IT Talents Dying ???

We need to be cheaper.

Really.

tan reborn SG

We need to be cheaper.

Really.

MPs in Singapore work long hours

in future singaporean in Singapore work long hours

charlize SG

MPs in Singapore work long hours

in future singaporean in Singapore work long hours

We need to be better and faster too.

tan reborn SG

We need to be better and faster too.

better still 1 person do 2 person done - salary same

no mc

no ot

no off

no holiday

no annual leave

no taxi claim

EarlNeo SG

so now is... either u are faster, better and cheaper.... or u are out...

if pay is now lower, why cost of living is getting higher....

lower labour cost shd help lowering the cost of living? no? raw material higher then labour or just director cut get bigger?

always wonder who is keeping the profit....

av98m SG

so now is... either u are faster, better and cheaper.... or u are out...

if pay is now lower, why cost of living is getting higher....

lower labour cost shd help lowering the cost of living? no? raw material higher then labour or just director cut get bigger?

always wonder who is keeping the profit....

The people on top. CEOs, board of directors, Ministers, MPs, etc. That's why rich get richer, poor get poorer

I've a feeling ministers and mps going to give themselves a pay hike soon. hence the article about working long hours.

tan reborn SG

cos we no natural resource cannot be welfare society - co tax and personal tax - must be low

otherwise more people no job

so gst 3 - 5 - 7 % if i am not wrong

so more pr prc ft flock here - gst cannot drop use them to give needy public assistance

unless become elites or ministers

Arapahoe SG

everybardie else oso work long hours wat.............................

Thats right...people who draw less than 2000 a month also work more.....

charlize SG

Thats right...people who draw less than 2000 a month also work more.....

Nonsense.

These people drawing low salaries don't have to go for high level meetings in aircon rooms where they listen to presentations for hours with tea breaks in between.

EarlNeo SG

The people on top. CEOs, board of directors, Ministers, MPs, etc. That's why rich get richer, poor get poorer

I've a feeling ministers and mps going to give themselves a pay hike soon. hence the article about working long hours.

nah... they not that stupid lah... most prob they will opt for pay cut.. to get vote....

and when election is over.. say they done a good job and get their the pay cut+ interest back thru bonuses if not more....

tan reborn SG

the best is they i month donate s$50000.00 no increase in salary

but that would not happen - not enough salary later corrupted

they drive m300 bmw730i

tan reborn SG

Pegging ministerial and civil service pay to that of the private sector?

SINGAPORE – Much earlier on, the Singapore government tabled a motion to peg the salaries of ministers and civil servants to that of the private sector. To peg the salaries against earners in the private sector, there must be some basis to show that a civil servant is indeed comparable to someone who is employed in the private sector.

One of the questions that arises is if there is any basis of comparison in the first place. If there is no basis of comparison, the argument for the need to raise salaries of civil servants and ministers by pegging them to the salaries of executives in the private sector is untenable. This is simply because there is little basis for comparison with their counterparts in the private sector.

In fact, in reality, there is little basis of comparison between someone working in the private sector and a civil servant. In the private sector, the raison d’etre for an employee or executive is simply to generate revenue or profits for the firms they are working for. A top executive in a firm is ultimately answerable to the shareholders, in as far as profits are concerned. Thus, more often than not, the worth of an employee or executive for that matter in the private sector is based on his ability to generate revenue through his contributions directly or indirectly. Therefore, his salary is justified by his ability to generate revenue or level of competitiveness, one way or another. (in the context of this article, competitiveness means the ability to generate profits or revenue directly or indirectly).

How about a civil servant or even a top grade civil servant for that matter? His raison d’etre is public administration. Barring exceptions of civil servants occupying certain positions in the Economic Development Board or the Ministry of Trade and Industry, majority of civil servants are not in the position to generate revenue, so to speak. It follows that the working philosophy is not competitive in that particular sense. This can be illustrated with a simple comparative example. A superscale civil servant working at the headquarters of the Education Ministry makes decisions on the education system in Singapore in a public administrative capacity. However, a top executive in an educational provider company would be tasked with steering the company with the goal of generating more profits in mind. There is a world of difference between the two and the nature and aims of their work. It follows that the argument of using the private sector as a basis to justify the revisions in salary is not tenable.

There is another argument from the basis of lost opportunities, i.e. what talents in the civil service would have gained if they worked in the private sector instead. I am not denying that there are people formerly in the civil service who will eventually do well in the private sector, BUT again, to assert that a top executive within a civil service would go on to be a high flyer in the private sector may not sound convincing. The reason is the argument that I highlight earlier. The civil servant may have been brilliant at public administration, but we do not know if he is brilliant at generating revenue. An extrapolation of such a nature would be problematic.

The main thrust of my argument is that if one wants to peg salaries against a benchmark, there must be some basis of comparison with the benchmark. Thus, it is important to compare a civil servant with a someone working in the private sector. If there is no basis of comparison, then it follows that there is no basis for pegging salaries against that certain benchmark.

Gattlinggun80 SG

maybe they minster pegging salary with private sector world wide.

like compare salary with tiger woods,britney spears,tom cruise and other top players in pvt sector .tigger woods slary is 3o million dollars/year so the ministers say 1 million /year is a fraction ...............i think minsters have to be realistic.thye should peg salary to world countries various presidents and not to movie stars who have viewers worldwide.

so if us president is $300,000/year and their gdp is a certain amount say 100 billion/year then salary is 100%.

to be fair and based on their performance results on economy gdp if spore gdp is 50 billion/year then leader slary should be less to 150k/year.after all the leader isnt a world movie star who sings and plays a good golf game that wins plenty prizes.

tan reborn SG

Termination of employment is becoming more and more common these days as companies try to down size. Different employers make use of different methods to terminate employment. Some are transparent, while others are shady and underhanded.

Lionel (not his real name), an alumnus of NUS science who had graduated 6 years ago, recounts his experience of being the victim of an underhanded tactic his direct boss used to terminate his employment.

What company was that?
It was a science-related company

How was the company like?
It was a small company, but has offices all over the world from the Asia-Pacific to North America and Europe.

How long were you with the company?
More than a year

How would you rate your job satisfaction?
I rated my job satisfaction highly. Unlike my friends with science degrees who ended up in non-related fields, I considered myself fortunate to find work with a company whose focus is relevant to my degree. I definitely enjoyed being in touch with the latest developments in the scientific field, which was part and parcel of my job.

What were the circumstances leading to your termination?
It came during the annual performance review for 2008 which was a standard operating procedure in my company. When my report came, I was stunned at its contents. There were fictitious accounts justifying my poor performance. Some of the accounts bothered on defamation, and were direct assaults on my character. The report was drawn up by my direct boss.

Give examples of such fictitious accounts.
One allegation was a description of my negative reaction towards an external agency whom my company hired for certain projects. In certain areas of work, we required inputs from these hired agencies. In my case, I never ever had to rely on their inputs. The negative reaction was displayed by another colleague in my department, and it wasn’t by me. I managed to deliver the project without any input from the agency right on schedule. So there was no reason to react negatively. And what happened was that the agency encountered problems which meant we could not receive their inputs on time, and thus, we would not be in a position to deliver the project on time if we were to rely on the agency. But I delivered the project,so there is no reason for me to be negative towards the hired agency. I have always treated external agencies in a diplomatic fashion and to report that I was negative towards them was too much!

The second was an allegation of the poor quality of work I produced for a certain category of project. I had kept a log of all the projects that I had done, but there wasn’t one that fell into the alleged category.

What was your opinion of your boss on hindsight?
I can summarize her with one statement – management is never her strength. I found from working with her that her knowledge in legal compliance for certain procedures is sorely lacking. There was an instance when she told me to do something, but I refused because it might potentially contravene one of the legal acts of Singapore. Look, no one wants to get on the wrong end of the law, and I rather give up the job than get on the wrong end of the law. My direct boss also reported this instance to back up her criticism of me in the annual report of my performance, citing my stubborn attitude. But, any reasonable manager would demonstrate understanding towards subordinates who reacted as I did due to the fact that I was the overall overseer of the project, and this was captured in black and white. The fact that she used such an incident as a criticism of me in her evaluation betrayed her lack of objectivity.

And I find her very self-centered. Even her subordinates had to sing her tune. I did that too because I was under her. The only time I didn’t sing her tune was the previously mentioned incident about me refusing to implement one of her orders because that might contravene our laws. Her definition of quality is simply whether she agrees or disagrees to something. Interestingly, when managers of the same level as her looked at her work, they gave criticisms on its lack of quality, and this email was circulated to us subordinates! Maybe, when she called others stubborn, she didn’t use a mirror.

lotus999 SG

hey, the discussion has gone off course!

charlize SG

All still talking about work what.

Fantagf SG

So, should we finish off his mother now?

He must take the lead in this since he proposed the idea of telling people to go and die.

Wow, this further proves he is really shitty, heartless.

Since he suggested this, why doesn't he as a leader lead by example by ending his mother's life.

With such ill , evil character - I will never respect it called lhl.

tan reborn SG

November 9, 2009 by admin
Filed under Headlines