Of Workforce

At Ah Wang Cafe, a takeaway traditional coffee place, i witnessed the dynamics of Singapore's workforce. In a store of 6 staff, 3 were considered young(below 35) and 3 were considered old (above 40).

For descriptive purposes, the younger ones will be referred to as ladies, the olders one, well,aunties.

1. Young lady at Cashier Counter(likely to be philiphino)
2. Auntie at toast counter, main role (likely to be singaporean)
3. Lady at toast counter, assistant/supervisory (likely to be m'sian)
4. Lady at drinks counter, main role (likely to be from mainland china)
5. Auntie at drinks counter, assistant role (likely to be singaporean)
6. Auntie at back end, cleaning, misc duties (likely to be singaporean)

Based on this 6 person workforce in the local F&B sector, the following are observed:
50% are local, 50% are foreign
50% are young workforce, 50% are silver workforce

Personal observations:
The aunties seems to be struggling to perform the duties at the required speed and precision. Eg. Auntie packed a toast that was meant for eat in into takeaway bagEg. Auntie used a pre-prepared teh cup(with condensed milk) for my tehC(used evapourated milk) which the main drinks maker(the lady) noticed and changed immediately

So basically i spend about 12mins waiting for my full order when the normal time would be around 7-8mins. In short, workplace productivity and efficiency is affected due to lower output from workers.

I also stopped to wonder how the aunties must have felt when the younger ladies reminded them of what they had to do, in a not so nice way of course. Were they cursing under their breath or did they feel a sense of helplessness in their own land?

In an ideal world, good workers, high productivity and low cost makes the business work

In Singapore today, the young singaporeans are relunctant to work in F&B/Retail sectors, due to the low pay, long working hours etc. The older singaporeans who need/want to work in the workforce are left with jobs that are willing to employ them, eg. F&B sector(Old Chang Kee, Wang Cafe, Mr Bean, ok you get the picture).

Our increased reliance on foreign workforce has become stronger than ever. At the lower-middle range, foreigners are taking jobs that locals rather not do(retail, F&B frontline). At the extreme high end, expats continue to occupy top post in top companies in singapore.
Why am i talking about all this?

Perhaps my own future is at stake when i complete my degree come Dec 2008. Would i be left without a job for the first time since i started work in Oct 2005? What lies ahead? Would i be required to work alongside, above or below the foreign workforce, how does work ethics, culture and experience affects the interaction between colleagues?




Towards the unknown
(One more thing i notice though, the aunties all had nice dyed hair!)