SINGAPORE: A frustrated laboratory staff member has taken to social media to vent about the brutal working conditions she’s been forced to endure due to a severe manpower shortage.
In her post on the r/askSingapore subreddit, she revealed that she’s been slogging through more than 12-hour shifts, all because her company refuses to replace three permanent staff members who resigned last year.
“Until now, the company doesn’t intend to hire new permanent full-time employees to replace them. Rather than hiring permanent staff, the company is only willing to hire contract staff. However, the contract staff are only allowed to perform minimal tasks such as extraction for analysis.”
The staff member expressed that this did little to ease their burden. “I mostly work from 7:30 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every day. If I cannot finish, I will bring my laptop home to continue working, including weekends. There is no work-life balance,” she said.
She also pointed out that their managers seem to understand how dire the situation has become; however, the upper management is reluctant to take action due to concerns that hiring additional employees would incur higher costs.
“I guess the boomer generation—like my boss’s boss—only knows work, work, and more work. They said that we need to spend less on consumables and improve on cost-saving. Such a big company, but doesn’t care about employees’ welfare, only cares about cost-saving and business.”
Turning to the online community for insights, she asked whether others had experienced similar hiring freezes and cost-saving measures in their workplaces.
“Please don’t work throughout your weekends…”
Numerous Singaporean Redditors shared similar experiences in the discussion thread, underscoring how prevalent understaffing and excessive workloads have become across various industries.
One shared, “Yes, same here. Financial services sector. My team size dropped from 30 to now five. Workload increased, yet no headcount. It’s a combination of people leaving voluntarily and being kicked out. Feeling like my boss is gonna be rid of as well.”
Another commented, “Tech sector here. The company is not doing that well, and globally cut 10% like yearly; I have been working 3 3-man jobs for three years already. So I just automated my processes.”
Some Redditors also advised the lab staff member to refrain from taking on more responsibilities than she can manage. One user stated, “If you find that your team is significantly smaller, then please don’t work throughout your weekends but try to only work within office hours.
Otherwise, they will take it for granted and then expect you to work on weekends forever. If your team is significantly smaller, then they can’t afford to lose you, so technically, you can push back a little.”
Working hours
According to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), your working hours shouldn’t exceed 8 hours a day or 44 hours a week. If you end up working past that, it counts as overtime, and your company is supposed to pay you 1.5 times your usual hourly rate for those extra hours.
Not everyone qualifies for overtime pay, though. You’re eligible if:
- You’re a non-workman (like an office worker) earning $2,600 or less per month
- You’re a workman (someone in manual labour jobs) earning $4,500 or less per month
Now, about the maximum working hours: Generally, you can’t work more than 12 hours a day. But there are some situations where employers might need you to work longer, like if there’s an accident or imminent risk, essential work related to the community, national defence, or security, urgent machinery repairs, or unforeseen work disruptions that require immediate attention.
If you do need to work more than 12 hours a day, you can only go up to 14 hours, and your employer has to apply for an overtime exemption. Plus, there’s a limit of 72 overtime hours each month. They’ll need to request another exemption if they want you to go over that.
Featured image by freepik (for illustration purposes only)