Work-life balance? Know trade-offs too

[Jman888]

This is what i was trying to stress in previous thread, many of us can choose to slow down, but if the whole country is slowing down to have the work-life balance, who is going to cheong out there to make sure the economy continue to perform and sustain?

 

Fortunately there are still ambitious young graduates (despite some strawberry) who are hardworking.

 

On the other hand, we also see many members acknowledge the trade off (income vs time) at personal level, but at the national level, things will not be good. Dun turn this into bashing, we can discuss about your personal choice and the trade off.

 

 

Work-life balance? Know trade-offs too, PMLee says

PM warns S'poreans that overseas competitors seek to steal their lunch

 

Published on Sep 25, 2013

7:44 AM

By Goh Chin Lian

 

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has sought to inject some balance in the national preoccupation with work-life balance, warning Singaporeans that competitors are out to steal their lunch.

 

At a televised forum last night, he said the idea of work-life balance has become so popular it is now a tag phrase.

 

"They call it a meme on the Internet," he said, adding that people who used the phrase did not seem quite sure what they meant by it except that they would like more free time and less stress.

 

It was also not clear if people knew the trade-offs, he said.

[Soya]

All I can caution is: "Be careful of what you wish for".

 

 

 

[Jman888]

All I can caution is: "Be careful of what you wish for".

 

 

that phrase was copyright by Radx hor [rolleyes]

[Xlentlow]

most Singaporean I worked with, they are already stress free and relaxed in occupation. however it's the long working hours that compensate with their stress free job. sorry I work in F&B industry. working hours are important in F&B because its service industry. there is no way to compensate or replace the hours needed to be at work unless you give up part of your salary to 1 more staff that takes over your working hours. in F&B industry, no matter how productive you are, you had to have the hours clocked.

maybe office or other industry they can finish their case on hands using shorter time to allow more time off from work? that may balance things up. however, when you can free up your time with productivity, there will be more things handed to you, to balance up your work with your capability. enhance profits for company.

so, basically Singaporean are who they are, (eating snakes, working slowly, etc etc) because they know that they will have more work to do if they are more capable, and they don't want these extra works.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Xlentlow

[Jman888]

i dun think it is right and fair to say that for all singaporean, there are people who work till sick and death.

 

most Singaporean I worked with, they are already stress free and relaxed in occupation. however it's the long working hours that compensate with their stress free job. sorry I work in F&B industry. working hours are important in F&B because its service industry. there is no way to compensate or replace the hours needed to be at work unless you give up part of your salary to 1 more staff that takes over your working hours. in F&B industry, no matter how productive you are, you had to have the hours clocked.

maybe office or other industry they can finish their case on hands using shorter time to allow more time off from work? that may balance things up. however, when you can free up your time with productivity, there will be more things handed to you, to balance up your work with your capability. enhance profits for company.

so, basically Singaporean are who they are, (eating snakes, working slowly, etc etc) because they know that they will have more work to do if they are more capable, and they don't want these extra works.

Edited September 25, 2013 by Jman888

[Duckduck]

not clear of wat tradeoffs? having kids, spending more time w family, work less n not being promoted faster as a result n an FT take over that promotion position? yes i thk we forecast d tradeoffs ourselves.

 

so hes warning us he wont help citizens despite tradeoffs we make?

Edited September 25, 2013 by Duckduck

[Sosaria]

This is where even the PM is confused...

 

Work-life balance does NOT mean slowing down pace of work, with resulting less productivity.

 

It means cutting down on those UNNECESSARY long hours spent on non-productive work activity. Time that could be better spent handling our personal interests or with family.

 

Many people have to work long hours, but a lot of the time is spent unnecessarily on:

(1) non-productive paperwork, e.g. appraisals, mid-year reviews, etc. If you're not on track or due for a promotion this year, why bother at all to spend time composing a nice write-up?

(2) meetings or committee work on non-productive issues unrelated to the bottom-line. I'm sure many of us can come up with examples.

(3) paperwork that results from convoluted processes done up simply to fulfill some misguided quality requirement.

(4) Etc. etc. all the "wayang" stuff that goes on in your workplace.

 

Cut down all of these things, and there you have your work-life balance, without doing less work, actually!

 

 

[Sosaria]

...

so, basically Singaporean are who they are, (eating snakes, working slowly, etc etc) because they know that they will have more work to do if they are more capable, and they don't want these extra works.

 

How right you are, and this is due to poor management oversight of the scope of work done by each employee.

 

There are only a fixed number of working hours per day. Which employee will voluntarily take up more roles and do the extra things that need to be done - if his boss never assigned it to him?

 

If the boss never assign, it simply means that the boss is unaware this employee is doing the extra. So what will the employee gain?

 

We see many middle management trapped in this cycle of fire-fighting at work every day, never spend the time to chart out what each of his subordinates is officially doing, or track their progress... end up, those people with more initiative end up doing more work quietly while the others benefit.

[Sosaria]

...

double post...

Edited September 25, 2013 by Sosaria

[Mustank]

This is where even the PM is confused...

 

Work-life balance does NOT mean slowing down pace of work, with resulting less productivity.

 

It means cutting down on those UNNECESSARY long hours spent on non-productive work activity. Time that could be better spent handling our personal interests or with family.

 

Many people have to work long hours, but a lot of the time is spent unnecessarily on:

(1) non-productive paperwork, e.g. appraisals, mid-year reviews, etc. If you're not on track or due for a promotion this year, why bother at all to spend time composing a nice write-up?

(2) meetings or committee work on non-productive issues unrelated to the bottom-line. I'm sure many of us can come up with examples.

(3) paperwork that results from convoluted processes done up simply to fulfill some misguided quality requirement.

(4) Etc. etc. all the "wayang" stuff that goes on in your workplace.

 

Cut down all of these things, and there you have your work-life balance, without doing less work, actually!

 

woah!!! i supoport!!!

[Sucker]

When I was driving from Tuas to Changi around 8pm, I still see a lot of cars and dump truck (singapore licence plate), the car drivers seem like heading home from work while the lorry drivers are still working. At this time, I feel Singaporean is working hard with long hours.

[Duckduck]

This is where even the PM is confused...

 

Work-life balance does NOT mean slowing down pace of work, with resulting less productivity.

 

It means cutting down on those UNNECESSARY long hours spent on non-productive work activity. Time that could be better spent handling our personal interests or with family.

 

Many people have to work long hours, but a lot of the time is spent unnecessarily on:

(1) non-productive paperwork, e.g. appraisals, mid-year reviews, etc. If you're not on track or due for a promotion this year, why bother at all to spend time composing a nice write-up?

(2) meetings or committee work on non-productive issues unrelated to the bottom-line. I'm sure many of us can come up with examples.

(3) paperwork that results from convoluted processes done up simply to fulfill some misguided quality requirement.

(4) Etc. etc. all the "wayang" stuff that goes on in your workplace.

 

Cut down all of these things, and there you have your work-life balance, without doing less work, actually!

 

ayah then how does the newly hired HR & Ops head justify their expenditure budget? every new head come sure wanna rock d boat w new initiatives.

 

there is a trend to increase each dept expenditure to remain relevant instead of shrinking n becoming redundant: do more work means more relevant means more pay. whether or not it adds value or productivity is an afterthought.

 

[Windchoco]

In the last 20 years the Western big companies were able to achieve work-life balance by leveraging on Asia.

 

Thus it is a more of a matter of working smart and having right strategy. If our gov wants us to slug it out with the developing countries in terms of long-working hrs and cheap labour/low expectations, we can never beat them.

 

For every cheap country, there is always another cheaper 1 around.

[Sucker]

Nowadays, company needs to get certified.... a lot of paper works to be done... we must follow procedure and workflow and document the approval and must provide evidence to auditor for review the process...

 

to me, it is taking the toll..

 

woah!!! i supoport!!!

 

[RadX]

And this too I realise tt the young still want to climb

 

Recently resignations at all time high at my place... Sense sth wrong w the force

 

 

 

[RadX]

I retiring soon la anyway...

[Duckduck]

http://www.gallup.com/poll/124922/presiden...val-center.aspx

 

wish we had a poll like this, then at least the PM etc will know his own standing at anytime instead of every 5yrs being on chopping board.

[Jman888]

economy getting better? and more job opportunity?

 

And this too I realise tt the young still want to climb

 

Recently resignations at all time high at my place... Sense sth wrong w the force