SINGAPORE: A woman sparked a lively conversation on Reddit after asking an intriguing question: Is job discrimination a thing in Singaporean workforces? In her post, she explained what prompted her to raise this issue:
“I have a childhood friend who became a doctor and migrated to Australia. He had a culture shock to see that in the Australian medical field, it’s common for a doctor to befriend the medical receptionists and nurses and go out for dinner and drinks together,” she wrote.
“But in Singapore, even those who are of the same proximity don’t hang out too much and often don’t say hi, etc., unless they are in the same field. Some doctors even have egos in Singapore due to their inflated social status, as I heard.”
“Feel so sorry for the genuinely nice doctors around, but more often than not, the bad eggs are truly rotten.”
In the post’s comments section, numerous Redditors concurred that job discrimination is rampant in the city-state, particularly within the medical and legal fields.
One individual who used to work in medical marketing confirmed this, describing Singaporean doctors in the private sector as some of the most “egoistic, competitive people he has ever met.”
Another chimed in, noting that this attitude is also prevalent among public-sector doctors.
He said, “This is true for public doctors too. In fact, I recently heard of a horror story from a colleague that had to deal with a high profile dude that is a doctor.
You can’t believe the amount of egoistic (nonsense) they say given their position, even to the next generation of doctors.
So obviously, the culture will spread when it comes to the indoctrination stage. Feel so sorry for the genuinely nice doctors around, but more often than not, the bad eggs are truly rotten.”
Meanwhile, some Redditors explained why doctors rarely interact with nurses or receptionists.
They pointed out that the pay disparities—and, by definition, the class divide—between GP doctors and nurses are less pronounced in Australia than in Singapore.
According to their sources, in Singapore, front-line positions such as receptionists and nurses are frequently filled by non-locals from third-world countries who are paid very poorly.
These employees, who consider their jobs highly paid compared to those in their home countries, risk losing their positions unless they show deference to the doctors.
The same can be said for receptionists, who, according to some, are typically part-timers, individuals with lower skills and lower hourly pay, or semi-retired individuals who are less concerned about their earnings.
One individual added that this could also be due to the “patient ratio workload” of the local doctors.
He explained, “Australian doctors also have a much lower patient ratio workload. In Singapore, the doctor-to-patient ratio is much higher. SG doctors spend more time at work than at home.
If you are constantly stressed and overworked, socializing at work is hardly your top priority.
BTW, Australian educated doctors who came back to Singapore often struggle to keep up with locally trained doctors because they had it too easy in Australia.”
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