Politics & Society

Singaporeans have to be given ‘Family Day Out’ to enjoy family life

Article at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/343445/1/.html

That’s quite sad, eh? Singaporeans actually have to look to the government to allocate them a ‘family day out’ so that they can spend more time with their family. I understand the premise is to ‘encourage’ Singaporeans to spend more time with family, however, I believe this is not addressing the root of the problem.

Who in this world don’t long for family connection? Even those with dysfunctional families often long for the day when they can have a happy, fulfilling family life. This is human nature. There must be some extenuating factors in order for a society to move away from the fundamental value of family cohesiveness… in Singapore’s case I suspect it is the bread and butter issue.

Many of my friends who have now been working for a couple of years feedback to me that they are required to work overtime to meet deadlines and the whims of their superiors… many of whom are in the civil/public service… but it is largely the same for private entities as well. I’ve never heard of any friend who works in a place where employees are encouraged to go home on time to spend time with their families. No, this is certainly not the Singaporean way. While I am sure there are companies with such policies, I do not believe this is anywhere near common. What we have are just superficial, unrealistic ‘initiatives’ set up by upper management and top government officials that try to simplify the problem into a simple 1 + 1 = 2 type… essentially looking to work on the tip of the iceberg without bothering about the root causes.

Look at it this way. Say today is Friday, a designated day to go home early to dine with one’s family - but the over-zealous superior of yours wants you to finish a particular report that she just assigned to you this morning before you knock off work… what can you do? Can you tell her, “Sorry, this is Friday and I’m going home early to have dinner with my wife and kids”?

Who gives a hoot about you and your family? Maybe top management and government officials, but there is no realistic blueprint on how to actually balance everything nicely - it’s a domino effect - Superior 1 rushes Superior 1.1 for the report to be submitted on Wednesday, who, wanting to impress the boss by handing it in before schedule, in turns rushes Superior 1.1.1 who believes that things should be done more ‘efficiently’ and thus sets a Friday evening deadline for poor you.

The problem with Singapore is that in our pursuit for efficiency and effectiveness in a meritocratic society, people feel compelled to give all they’ve got for their employers - whether they choose to do it (i.e. motivate themselves) or not (i.e. forced/pressurized by superiors). While this is not a bad thing to have, it certainly takes a toll on the employees’ private and family lives - some may argue that this should be a matter of inadequate work/life balance by the employees themselves, but I see the problem as a bigger one - the government and employers often seem more interested to squeeze whatever energy left in employees to make sure that they are ‘efficient’ and ‘effective’ and give the most bang for buck.

Overtime, even the best and most motivated worker can become disillusioned with it - when signs of wear and cracks in family and private lives start to show. Of course for everything there are exceptional cases - ‘model’ families who are able to stick together despite difficulties - but that’s a small minority.

We often hear friends complain about how in Singapore one person does the work of two because their employees want better efficiency. Nothing wrong with wanting to be efficient, but… with the means to achieve it - through exploiting employees to their last burst of energy and morale.

To obtain a long term solution, the government must first be able to accept that a paradigm shift is required in the society - to change the mindsets of people and organisations to look more at overall happiness in life rather than just material achievements. But perhaps, the government is already aware of this problem but is not keen to solve it for the aforementioned reasons (effectiveness, efficiency). Perhaps, it can even be hypothesized that this is the way the government wants Singapore to be, so that we can continue to be ‘first’ and ‘best’ in everything.

This then brings us to the problem of an overly competition driven society where people and organisations are encouraged to constantly compete with one another so that one can emerge as the ‘winner’ and the ‘first’, ‘best’ , whatever. The problems of a meritocracy.

In everything there are pros and cons, but are we better off embracing the pros of a meritocracy and bringing along with us the problems that we will eventually pass on to our future generations?

© 2008 this lush garden within.