Studies Show S’pore Employers Still Didn’t Put Work-Life Balance as a Priority

Last Updated on 2019-05-08 , 6:55 pm

Everyone knows working in Singapore is stressful. I mean, just look at Raffles place in the evening, chances are you’ll still see people working even at 8:00 p.m.

If you’re someone who is looking for a good work-life balance in Singapore, I have some bad news for you.

It’s pretty hard to find it here, according to the Randstad Employer Brand Research 2017 study.

Look at the left column of the chart above. 

The top 3 things employees in Singapore seek is Good Work-Life Balance, Job Security and a Pleasant Work Atmosphere.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A study shows that employees’ first priority in a job is work-life balance, yet employers thought that pay is employees’ first priority. So if you’re an employer, do remember this: most Singaporeans prefer to go home at 6:00 p.m. instead of getting paid just a little more. Well, at least that’s what the study says lah. Read more in our app. Link in bio. Guy Who Has to Treat the Office as His Personal Gym: @notzhihao #factoftheday #sgig #sg #singapore #instasg #yoursingapore #sgphoto #singaporean #singaporelife #thisissingapore #instagramsg #igerssingapore #iluvsg #sgdaily #singaporeig #sglocal #sglifestyle #sgbloggers #sgblogger #funfacts #productivity #sgwork #worklifebalancefail

A post shared by Goody Feed (@goody.feed) on Nov 23, 2018 at 7:50pm PST

These are followed by Good Career Progression and Good Financial Health.

Interesting, but still pretty normal. But when you add the other half of the equation, that’s where things get a bit alarming.

Now let us look at the middle column.

You’ll notice that for Singapore employers, job security, a pleasant workplace environment and a good work-life balance is in the 5th, 7th and 8th place respectively.

That’s right. The number one priority of employees is number 8 on the employers’ list.

You can start crying now. #RealityHurts

After all, bosses just, for some reason, don’t understand us. But do you know that even so, they can’t suka suka do whatever they like? Here’s a video on the things that a boss can’t do to you in Singapore (be surprised at how many bosses are breaking the rules!):

Now, moving on…

Employers must look at their work-life balance initiatives now

“Employers must take a look at their current initiatives or find solutions to improve the work-life balance of their employees,” Mr Michael Smith, managing director of Randstad Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, said.

Or else, they’ll risk losing talents which helped their companies to where they are today.

But did you notice something interesting?

Take a look again at the right column of the chart. What’s number one on the list?

Financial health. That’s right, money.

This gives me some hope for the future because if you think about it, employees in the 90s are focused on one thing: to bring enough money home to feed the family.

It doesn’t matter whether they liked the job or not, as long as it puts food on the table, they’ll slog at it. And that coincided with what companies are offering today, good money.

Maybe Singaporean companies haven’t evolved while the needs of employees did.

It could be the employees doing personal stuff or slacking on company time which resulted in them having to do overtime.

Who knows, these companies might not know how to align their goals with employees so that both sides get what they want.

Maybe in a few years time, companies here learn how to achieve their goal of profit-making while giving you a good work-life balance at the same time.

But whatever it is, don’t quit your job because of this article because the job economy in Singapore isn’t that great now.

I hope my boss is reading this now. #hellobossyouveryhandsome