In today’s world, many activities are interconnected and integrated. Activities in one part of the world have to keep in pace with activities in other parts of the world. Singapore is not spared from this effect of globalization. Ministry of Manpower (MOM) (2005) reports that many services in Singapore have to provide round the clock service 7 days a week and businesses in Singapore are affected by events of countries in another time zone. This has caused operations of companies to be perpetually active even after office hours, eroding the clear divide between work and after work. There is thus an invasion of work into personal time, which is supported by the Robert Half’s 2011 survey that reports, 69% of Singapore employees still pay attention to work after office hours (Robert Half, 2011). Therefore many Singaporeans do experience a loss of work-life balance.
The Singapore government has put in place measures to mitigate the loss of work-life balance in working Singaporeans, but its success are limited. In this context, the successful attainment of work-life balance is contingent upon individuals to play a more active role in utilizing existing measures and setting the boundaries between work and life.
The tripartite committee of MOM, National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) was set up by the Singapore government in the year 2000. This tripartite committee is responsible for setting up the Work-Life Strategy. Under the Work-Life Strategy, schemes such as Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) and Family Care Leave aim to help working Singaporeans achieve work-life balance. Although there were success cases of use of FWA to promote work-life balance such as Kleen-Pak Products Pte Ltd and Singapore General Hospital (MOM, 2013), but these cases are rare and few. The reality is that many employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements; 7 in 10 employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements (Chew, 2013).
Yeo (2012) asserts that the underlying problem is the difficulty of employers in trusting employees to maintain work competency if they spend lesser time in the office. The onus is on individuals, the employees to solve this issue in order to achieve work-life balance. This is because corporations will not help employees to achieve work-life balance due to the unsupportive nature of employers towards FWA. It is up to the employees to be responsible for the kind of work-life balance that they want (TED Talks, 2010). The Institute of Singapore Charted Accountants (2009) reiterates the role of employee in achieving work-life balance, where employees need to initiate the discussion with the employers and come to a middle ground on the issue of employer’s expectation of work quota and the ability of employee to achieve that quota, if FWA is to be adopted.
Improvement in communication technologies has allowed employees to easily access their work even after office hours through the use of tablets and smartphones. It is thus almost impossible for employees to abstain from work after office hours. Employees should not expect employers to readily offer assistance to them to attain work-life balance because as TED Talks mentioned, corporations and employers are out to get the most out of employees. Individuals have to be responsible for setting the boundaries of work in their lives (TED Talks, 2010). Therefore, to achieve better work-life balance, individuals can commit to adopt certain practices in their lives. The solution to the loss of work-life balance does not equate to making drastic changes in daily lives because, according to TED Talks (2010), “Being more balanced doesn’t mean dramatic upheaval in your lives.” Given Singapore’s working culture it is impossible to implement drastic practices to abstain from work after office hours. Therefore, employees should commit to set aside time, perhaps just an hour a day, where they detach themselves from work and engage in personal activities. Although, the amount of personal time set aside is not huge, but “with the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the quality of your live” (TED Talks, 2010) and this should contribute to a better work-life balance.
In conclusion, although the Singapore government has rolled out many initiatives to promote work-life balance in Singapore, but the unwillingness and unsupportive attitude of employers towards these initiatives has limited the success of existing initiatives. Therefore, individuals need to play a more active role in committing to set boundaries between work and life and utilizing existing initiatives to attain work-life balance.
References
Chew, W. L. (Producer). (2013, March 01). News 5 tonight [Television broadcast]. Singapore: Channel 5.
Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants. (2009, November 6). Achieving work life balance: ICPAS Dinner & Dialogue with Mr Teo Ser Luck Part 2. [Video file]. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aBN2eHxamY
Ministry Of Manpower. (2005) Work-Life harmony report: findings and recommendations for employers on how to use work-life strategies to optimize business performance. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/WLSREPORTFINAL.pdf
Ministry Of Manpower (2013). The work-life grant: better work-life harmony for all. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/Work-Life%20Grant%20Booklet%20(online%20viewing)%20FINAL.pdf
Robert Half. (2011). 69% of Singapore professionals stay glued to work after office hours. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.roberthalf.com.sg/id/PR-03136/69-percent-of-singaporeans-glued-to-work-after-office-hours
TED Talks. (2010, May). Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work. [Video file] Retrieved October 16 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdpIKXLLYYM
Yeo, M. B. (2012). Tune up for success in work and life. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from National University of Singapore, National University of Singapore Business School Web site: https://bizalum.nus.edu/nbs/lifelongdetails.aspx?id=240
Thursday, 17 October 2013
Wednesday, 16 October 2013
Essay draft 1B
In today’s world, many activities are interconnected and integrated. Activities in one part of the world have to keep in pace with activities in other parts of the world. Moreover with the constantly improving technology, human activities are getting more efficient and effective. Therefore to remain competitive, efficiency in operation of activities has to improve constantly. Singapore is not spared from this effect of globalization. Ministry of Manpower (MOM) (2005) reports that many services in Singapore have to provide round the clock service 7 days a week and businesses in Singapore are affected by events in countries of another time zone. This causes operations of companies to be perpetually active even after office hours. There is thus no longer a clear divide between work and after work. This has led to the invasion of work into personal time. According to a Robert Half’s 2011 survey, 69% of Singapore employees still pay attention to work after office hours (Robert Half, 2011). This survey supports the loss of work-life balance that working Singaporeans are facing today.
The Singapore government has put in place measures to mitigate the loss of work-life balance in working Singaporeans. However, the attainment of work-life balance is contingent upon the employee to play a more active role.
The government has put in much effort to promote work-life balance in the workplace by setting up the tripartite committee of MOM, National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) in the year 2000. This tripartite is responsible for setting up the Work-Life Strategy. Under the Work-Life Strategy schemes such as Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) and Family Care Leave aims to help working Singaporeans achieve work-life balance. Although there were success cases of use of FWA to promote work-life balance such as Kleen-Pak Products Pte Ltd and Singapore General Hospital (MOM, 2013), but these cases are rare and few. The reality is that many employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements; 7 in 10 employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements (Chew, 2013).
Yeo (2012) assess that the underlying problem is that employers have difficulty trusting employees to maintain work competency if they spend lesser time in the office. The onus is on the employee to solve this issue in order to achieve work-life balance. This is corporations will not help us to achieve work-life balance due to the unsupportive nature of employers towards FWA. It is up to the individuals, the employees, to be responsible for the kind of work-life balance that they want (TED Talks, 2010). The Institute of Singapore Charted Accountants (2009) further reiterates the role of employee in achieving work-life balance where employees need to initiate the discussion with the employers to come to a middle ground on the issue of employer’s expectation of work quota and the ability of employee to achieve that quota, if FWA is to be adopted.
Improvement in communication technologies has allowed employees to easily access their work even after office hours, such as using their tablets and smartphones. It is thus almost impossible for employees to abstain from work after office hours. However, individuals can play a greater role to achieve work-life balance by adopting certain practices in their daily lives. TED Talks (2010) mentioned that corporations and employers are out to get the most out of employees. As a result, employees should not expect employers to readily offer assistance to them to attain work-life balance. Instead, individuals have to be responsible for setting the boundaries of work in their lives (TED Talks, 2010). The solution to the loss of work-life balance does not equate to making drastic changes in our daily lives, as supported by TED Talks (2010) that “Being more balanced doesn’t mean dramatic upheaval in your lives.” Given Singapore’s working culture it is impossible to totally abstain from work after office hours. Therefore, employees should commit to set aside time, perhaps just an hour a day, where they detach themselves from work and engage in personal activities. Although, the amount of personal time set aside may not huge, but as TED Talks (2010) mentioned, “With the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the quality of your live” and this should contribute to a better work-life balance.
In conclusion, although the Singapore government has rolled out many initiatives to promote work-life balance in Singapore, but the unwillingness and unsupportive attitude of employers towards these measures has limited the success of existing initiatives solving the loss of work-life balance in working Singaporeans. Therefore, individuals should play a more active role to modify their lifestyle and utilize existing initiatives to attain work-life balance.
References
Chew, W. L. (Producer). (2013, March 01). News 5 tonight [Television broadcast]. Singapore: Channel 5.
Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants. (2009, November 6). Achieving work life balance: ICPAS Dinner & Dialogue with Mr Teo Ser Luck Part 2 [Video file]. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aBN2eHxamY
Ministry Of Manpower. (2005) Work-Life harmony report: findings and recommendations for employers on how to use work-life strategies to optimize business performance. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/WLSREPORTFINAL.pdf
Ministry Of Manpower (2013). The work-life grant: better work-life harmony for all. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/Work-Life%20Grant%20Booklet%20(online%20viewing)%20FINAL.pdf
Robert Half. (2011). 69% of Singapore professionals stay glued to work after office hours. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.roberthalf.com.sg/id/PR-03136/69-percent-of-singaporeans-glued-to-work-after-office-hours
TED Talks. (2010, May). Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work [Video file] Retrieved October 16 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdpIKXLLYYM
Yeo, M. B. (2012). Tune up for success in work and life. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from National University of Singapore, National University of Singapore Business School Web site: https://bizalum.nus.edu/nbs/lifelongdetails.aspx?id=240
The Singapore government has put in place measures to mitigate the loss of work-life balance in working Singaporeans. However, the attainment of work-life balance is contingent upon the employee to play a more active role.
The government has put in much effort to promote work-life balance in the workplace by setting up the tripartite committee of MOM, National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) in the year 2000. This tripartite is responsible for setting up the Work-Life Strategy. Under the Work-Life Strategy schemes such as Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) and Family Care Leave aims to help working Singaporeans achieve work-life balance. Although there were success cases of use of FWA to promote work-life balance such as Kleen-Pak Products Pte Ltd and Singapore General Hospital (MOM, 2013), but these cases are rare and few. The reality is that many employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements; 7 in 10 employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements (Chew, 2013).
Yeo (2012) assess that the underlying problem is that employers have difficulty trusting employees to maintain work competency if they spend lesser time in the office. The onus is on the employee to solve this issue in order to achieve work-life balance. This is corporations will not help us to achieve work-life balance due to the unsupportive nature of employers towards FWA. It is up to the individuals, the employees, to be responsible for the kind of work-life balance that they want (TED Talks, 2010). The Institute of Singapore Charted Accountants (2009) further reiterates the role of employee in achieving work-life balance where employees need to initiate the discussion with the employers to come to a middle ground on the issue of employer’s expectation of work quota and the ability of employee to achieve that quota, if FWA is to be adopted.
Improvement in communication technologies has allowed employees to easily access their work even after office hours, such as using their tablets and smartphones. It is thus almost impossible for employees to abstain from work after office hours. However, individuals can play a greater role to achieve work-life balance by adopting certain practices in their daily lives. TED Talks (2010) mentioned that corporations and employers are out to get the most out of employees. As a result, employees should not expect employers to readily offer assistance to them to attain work-life balance. Instead, individuals have to be responsible for setting the boundaries of work in their lives (TED Talks, 2010). The solution to the loss of work-life balance does not equate to making drastic changes in our daily lives, as supported by TED Talks (2010) that “Being more balanced doesn’t mean dramatic upheaval in your lives.” Given Singapore’s working culture it is impossible to totally abstain from work after office hours. Therefore, employees should commit to set aside time, perhaps just an hour a day, where they detach themselves from work and engage in personal activities. Although, the amount of personal time set aside may not huge, but as TED Talks (2010) mentioned, “With the smallest investment in the right places, you can radically transform the quality of your relationships and the quality of your live” and this should contribute to a better work-life balance.
In conclusion, although the Singapore government has rolled out many initiatives to promote work-life balance in Singapore, but the unwillingness and unsupportive attitude of employers towards these measures has limited the success of existing initiatives solving the loss of work-life balance in working Singaporeans. Therefore, individuals should play a more active role to modify their lifestyle and utilize existing initiatives to attain work-life balance.
References
Chew, W. L. (Producer). (2013, March 01). News 5 tonight [Television broadcast]. Singapore: Channel 5.
Institute of Singapore Chartered Accountants. (2009, November 6). Achieving work life balance: ICPAS Dinner & Dialogue with Mr Teo Ser Luck Part 2 [Video file]. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aBN2eHxamY
Ministry Of Manpower. (2005) Work-Life harmony report: findings and recommendations for employers on how to use work-life strategies to optimize business performance. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/WLSREPORTFINAL.pdf
Ministry Of Manpower (2013). The work-life grant: better work-life harmony for all. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/Work-Life%20Grant%20Booklet%20(online%20viewing)%20FINAL.pdf
Robert Half. (2011). 69% of Singapore professionals stay glued to work after office hours. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from http://www.roberthalf.com.sg/id/PR-03136/69-percent-of-singaporeans-glued-to-work-after-office-hours
TED Talks. (2010, May). Nigel Marsh: How to make work-life balance work [Video file] Retrieved October 16 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdpIKXLLYYM
Yeo, M. B. (2012). Tune up for success in work and life. Retrieved October 16, 2013, from National University of Singapore, National University of Singapore Business School Web site: https://bizalum.nus.edu/nbs/lifelongdetails.aspx?id=240
Wednesday, 9 October 2013
Essay Draft
Globalization can be defined as the increasing cross-border interaction and integration of various aspects of human activities. Due to this increase in interaction and integration, many activities do not exist in isolation. Activities in one part of the world have to keep in pace with activities in other parts of the world, moreover with the constantly improving technology, human activities are getting more efficient and effective. No country’s economy can escape this effect of globalization, including Singapore. Many of the services in Singapore have to provide round the clock service 7 days a week, businesses in Singapore are affected by of another time zone events in another country (MOM, 2005), all these are part of the many reasons why working Singaporeans are experiencing a loss of work-life balance. There are measures put in place by Singapore government to mitigate the loss of work-life balance in working Singaporeans. To improve the effectiveness of such measures, Singapore’s government should focus to meet the manpower needs of employers and clear communication between employers and employees is essential to ensure that measures for improving work-life balance are not abused.
The government has put in much effort to promote work-life balance in the workplace by setting up the tripartite committee of Ministry of Manpower (MOM), National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) in the year 2000. The tripartite is responsible for setting up the Work-Life Strategy. Under the Work-Life Strategy schemes such as Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) and Family Care Leave to promote work-life balance. Although there were success cases of use of FWA to promote work-life balance such as Kleen-Pak Products Pte Ltd and Singapore General Hospital (MOM, 2013), but these cases are rare and few. In actual fact, many employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements, based on a news report on Channel 5 news in March 2013, 7 in 10 employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements. Many employers are thus just paying lip service to the FWA schemes.
The lack of support from employers towards the FWA consist of many reasons such as problems in scheduling meeting with workers due to different work timings, increase in cost to train more people for a particular job, there is also a need to employ more people for a particular position increasing operation cost (MOM, 2001). These are just some of the many problems experienced by employers when they consider adopting FWA for employees. The cost of practicing FWA in the workplace is not a main problem as Singapore’s government encourages the adoption of FWA through monetary benefits such as the Developmental Grant and FWA Incentive.
The underlying problems is that employers have difficulty trusting employees to maintain work competency if they spend lesser time in the office also some employers are afraid that employees may abuse the FWA system (Yeo, 2012). It is thus of paramount importance that employers and employees reach a common agreement before practicing FWA, such as setting the priority that a certain quota of work have to be met every week. Employers should also communicate clearly to the employees during the discussion process that regardless of whether employees are on FWA or not, they will still be judged fairly by employers upon their work performance. This is because some employers may have bias judgment of employees because they are on FWA (Yeo, 2012).
Another main problem is it is challenging for employers to hire 2 employees that have complementary work timings for the same job role (MOM, 2001). Perhaps the government can establish a committee to consolidate the people who require flexible working time and group them according to what kind of job they want and what is their working schedule. With this committee, there is a database or common ground for employers to search for people that fir or complement the working schedule of their current employee so as to allow them to adopt the FWA.
The effectiveness of existing measures to mitigate the loss of work-life balance among working Singaporeans is contingent upon the Singapore government to initiate solutions to meet the manpower demands of employers if they want to practice FWA in workplaces. However, it should be recognized that a long time may be needed to fully develop this solution by the government. Therefore, a more feasible and efficient way to improve the effectiveness of FWA may be to improve the communication between employers and employee.
References
Ministry Of Manpower. (2001). Flexible work arrangements Retrieved from http://mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/flexible-work-arrangements-mom-mcds.pdf
Ministry Of Manpower. (2005) Work-Life harmony report: Findings and recommendations for employers on how to use work-life strategies to optimize business performance. Retrieved from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/WLSREPORTFINAL.pdf
Ministry Of Manpower (2013). The work-life grant: Better work-life harmony for all. Retrieved from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/Work-Life%20Grant%20Booklet%20(online%20viewing)%20FINAL.pdf
Yeo, M. B. (2012). Tune up for success in work and life. Retrieved from https://bizalum.nus.edu/nbs/lifelongdetails.aspx?id=240
The government has put in much effort to promote work-life balance in the workplace by setting up the tripartite committee of Ministry of Manpower (MOM), National Trade Union Congress (NTUC) and Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF) in the year 2000. The tripartite is responsible for setting up the Work-Life Strategy. Under the Work-Life Strategy schemes such as Flexible Work Arrangements (FWA) and Family Care Leave to promote work-life balance. Although there were success cases of use of FWA to promote work-life balance such as Kleen-Pak Products Pte Ltd and Singapore General Hospital (MOM, 2013), but these cases are rare and few. In actual fact, many employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements, based on a news report on Channel 5 news in March 2013, 7 in 10 employers are unsupportive of flexible work arrangements. Many employers are thus just paying lip service to the FWA schemes.
The lack of support from employers towards the FWA consist of many reasons such as problems in scheduling meeting with workers due to different work timings, increase in cost to train more people for a particular job, there is also a need to employ more people for a particular position increasing operation cost (MOM, 2001). These are just some of the many problems experienced by employers when they consider adopting FWA for employees. The cost of practicing FWA in the workplace is not a main problem as Singapore’s government encourages the adoption of FWA through monetary benefits such as the Developmental Grant and FWA Incentive.
The underlying problems is that employers have difficulty trusting employees to maintain work competency if they spend lesser time in the office also some employers are afraid that employees may abuse the FWA system (Yeo, 2012). It is thus of paramount importance that employers and employees reach a common agreement before practicing FWA, such as setting the priority that a certain quota of work have to be met every week. Employers should also communicate clearly to the employees during the discussion process that regardless of whether employees are on FWA or not, they will still be judged fairly by employers upon their work performance. This is because some employers may have bias judgment of employees because they are on FWA (Yeo, 2012).
Another main problem is it is challenging for employers to hire 2 employees that have complementary work timings for the same job role (MOM, 2001). Perhaps the government can establish a committee to consolidate the people who require flexible working time and group them according to what kind of job they want and what is their working schedule. With this committee, there is a database or common ground for employers to search for people that fir or complement the working schedule of their current employee so as to allow them to adopt the FWA.
The effectiveness of existing measures to mitigate the loss of work-life balance among working Singaporeans is contingent upon the Singapore government to initiate solutions to meet the manpower demands of employers if they want to practice FWA in workplaces. However, it should be recognized that a long time may be needed to fully develop this solution by the government. Therefore, a more feasible and efficient way to improve the effectiveness of FWA may be to improve the communication between employers and employee.
References
Ministry Of Manpower. (2001). Flexible work arrangements Retrieved from http://mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/flexible-work-arrangements-mom-mcds.pdf
Ministry Of Manpower. (2005) Work-Life harmony report: Findings and recommendations for employers on how to use work-life strategies to optimize business performance. Retrieved from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/WLSREPORTFINAL.pdf
Ministry Of Manpower (2013). The work-life grant: Better work-life harmony for all. Retrieved from http://www.mom.gov.sg/Documents/employment-practices/Work-Life%20Grant%20Booklet%20(online%20viewing)%20FINAL.pdf
Yeo, M. B. (2012). Tune up for success in work and life. Retrieved from https://bizalum.nus.edu/nbs/lifelongdetails.aspx?id=240
Saturday, 5 October 2013
Essay outline
The need for Singapore's economy to stay competitive in this globalizing world has introduced greater stress and loss of work-life balance in people.
Description of situation
Singapore views the family as a basic unit of society and family in Singapore’s context refers to heterosexual, legally married and having children. In this globalizing world with heavy emphasis being placed on the economic success of a country, Singapore’s government is constantly trying to maintain the competitiveness of its economy. To remain competitive, The government wants to increase productivity of workers and companies. This resulted in many Singaporeans to place a disproportional amount of time in their work resulting in loss of work-life balance.
Identification of problem
The lack of work-life balance causes dissatisfaction in family relationship. This can result in strains in relationship among family members resulting in conflict, ultimately causing family problems.
Description of Solution
Government efforts at encouraging employers to implement strategies such as flexible work arrangements to encourage work-life balance. People can spend lesser time at the workplace and have shown to end up with greater productivity.
Evaluation of solution
flexible working hours cannot apply to everyone. eg those in 24/7 services.
Description of situation
Singapore views the family as a basic unit of society and family in Singapore’s context refers to heterosexual, legally married and having children. In this globalizing world with heavy emphasis being placed on the economic success of a country, Singapore’s government is constantly trying to maintain the competitiveness of its economy. To remain competitive, The government wants to increase productivity of workers and companies. This resulted in many Singaporeans to place a disproportional amount of time in their work resulting in loss of work-life balance.
Identification of problem
The lack of work-life balance causes dissatisfaction in family relationship. This can result in strains in relationship among family members resulting in conflict, ultimately causing family problems.
Description of Solution
Government efforts at encouraging employers to implement strategies such as flexible work arrangements to encourage work-life balance. People can spend lesser time at the workplace and have shown to end up with greater productivity.
Evaluation of solution
flexible working hours cannot apply to everyone. eg those in 24/7 services.
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