NS and Reservist.

There was another topic about globalization and I failed to impress on my migrant friends (now turn Singaporean) what is the frustration a native Singaporean face.

I do agree with him that things in general are base on merit. However given the liabilities of reservist that Singaporean males are facing in the workforce, it will never be a fair playground. Although employers are not allow to make such discrimination, it is bound to happen. Let me give an example, suppose you went for an interview and you have an excellent profile but need your to start work on a short notice. However you are not able to do so as there is reservist coming up and you may not defer. The company has another candidate which is of similar caliber who is the next in line. Due to this constraint, the original candidate is not chosen.

These incidents are not uncommon but they are not documented. So who know how much missed opportunity a Singaporean has gone through.

Given the amount of emphasize that the government is giving to the reservist, it is sad to note that the treat money as more important than the time the Singaporean has committed. They are given only the expected renumeration as compensation. What happen to the OT? The missed sales commission? The promotion due to being pass over to lead a project? This are not recognize. The analogy of the country as a company cannot apply. One can switch a company as there are many around, however one cannot just change a citizenship. There are too many factors. One is family others are economics and emotional.

These are the frustrations. But I guess that is what a Singaporean convert may fail to understand. Yes. 1st generation Singapore does not have the liability. Perhaps when the global government is there we will not have such frustration. If we can do things without emotion contributing a factor, I guess it is time we can call ourselves robot.

Decision are made based on merit at that point in time. It has a temporal factor in it.