‘Working with you gives me a headache!’ — China boss fires SG worker on the same day she was hired and pays her a ‘mere $50 for 10 hours work’

SINGAPORE: In what sounds like a bad workplace sitcom with zero laughs, a Singaporean woman was hired, fired, and handed a “thanks but no thanks” all within the same day, after slogging 10 hours on her feet with “no break, no rest” and a S$50 note as farewell.

The now-viral story was first shared on Singapore Uncensored, where the woman—who holds a GCE ‘N’ Level qualification and has a few years of work experience—recounted her ordeal. She had applied for a full-time role at a retail gadget shop in Tampines Mall, willing to learn the ropes despite having no prior experience in the specific product line.

However, from the moment she stepped into the unopened shop at 10:30 a.m., the day seemed doomed. The male colleague, RH, was not even aware she had been hired. Worse, “he repeatedly said I was confused and questioned who introduced me.” Despite her efforts to learn on the job, RH refused to teach her how to apply screen protectors—one of the core tasks of the job—and instead declared, “Working with you gives me a headache!”

After working tirelessly until 10 p.m., RH handed her S$50 and told her not to come back. The HR team also ghosted her, and she only received a response when she confronted management the next day—coincidentally bumping into RH’s wife, YY, who also happens to be the shop manager.

YY claimed her husband had “deemed her [the worker] unsuitable” and that “there’s no need to waste time.” When pressed for a valid explanation, the worker was instead accused of “bad-mouthing” RH to his wife, which the worker denied.

Adding salt to the wound, the worker noted that none of the employees she dealt with were Singaporean, but rather from China, which made her wonder about their hiring practices. “This raises questions about our country’s quota rules,” the worker pointed out—yet, in her dismissal, she was told by the very people who fired her that “Singaporeans can easily find jobs, don’t worry.”

The incident also left her wondering: since when did the “you’re Singaporean” label become an acceptable excuse for foreign employers to treat local workers like disposable labour whenever they like?

Read related: ‘Singapore is not your land!’ — ‘China woman’ yells at Singaporean woman, shouting, ‘Your family is just trash!’