Fresh graduate alleges she was fired within an hour at retail job for poor Mandarin proficiency

SINGAPORE: A fresh graduate shared on social media that she was dismissed less than an hour into her first day at a retail job, allegedly due to her limited proficiency in Mandarin.

In a post on the r/SGexams subreddit, the young individual said she accepted the position after being informed that she’ll only “need some Chinese to speak with the older customers.” However, she claimed that shortly after reporting for work, her supervisor began speaking to her entirely in Mandarin.

“She looked at me and talked in Chinese, and I could barely form a sentence,” the fresh graduate wrote. “When she was free, she told me what I could read on the cash counter, and I only understood about 10 percent of the words — but I can always learn, right?”

According to the post, the supervisor later contacted human resources in Mandarin and complained that it was “hard to work with her.” 

About 20 minutes later, the fresh graduate received a call from HR informing her that her employment had been terminated.

“I barely got to know any of the products,” she wrote. “It felt like I was expected to know everything immediately, and customers were staring at me like I was supposed to help them when I had only been there for 20 minutes. Anyways, my prediction came true. I’d get an old lady boss as a supervisor who only knows Chinese and is borderline nasty.”

She concluded by saying she would continue job hunting but would be far more careful going forward, especially in retail roles, and would make sure to clarify exactly how much Mandarin is required before accepting any offer.

“Take this as a sign to learn Chinese.”

In the comments, many netizens said they could strongly relate to her experience.

One commenter recalled facing the same struggle in their first job in the F&B sector, where most of the staff were Malaysian Chinese.

“My Chinese was horrible, so I couldn’t communicate with them well, and they really disliked working with me. At least you got fired early, because I remember I always dreaded going into work due to being the social outcast then. I lasted like 3-6 months?”

“But don’t fret, in the future, just be honest about not speaking Chinese well, or choose jobs that are mainly English speaking. I performed a lot better afterwards.”

Another netizen shared, “Well, I had a similar experience back when I worked in F&B in a Chinese restaurant. Back then it was traumatising but now it’s kind of funny looking back. Maybe try joining those big retail brands that come from the west. The chances they speak Chinese are lesser; good luck!”

A third added, “It’s their internal fault for not specifying the requirements for Mandarin speaking, so you should feel relieved, honestly. Otherwise, you will be stuck facing your dissatisfied supervisor for some time.”

Some also encouraged the fresh graduate to take the incident as motivation to learn Mandarin properly. 

One wrote, “Take this as a sign to learn Chinese then? And no, not learn on the job. Learn before you enter your new job.”

Another remarked, “This is the reality of the world. There are many jobs even in corporate world where you will need Chinese to communicate with vendors.”

In other news, a local employee turned to Reddit to ask for opinions after being told not to use a pantry that some of her Malay colleagues regarded as off-limits to “non-halal people.”

Posting on the r/SingaporeRaw subreddit on Monday (Jan 12), the employee shared that she was still relatively new to a particular office floor, and because of that, she assumed all shared facilities were open to everyone.

Read more: ‘Be more sensitive’: Employee shocked after director restricted her from using ‘halal pantry’