Singaporean Celebrity Divides Country in Viral Facebook Rant About Work Ethic

Singaporean Celebrity Divides Country in Viral Facebook Rant About Work Ethic
Ryan General
July 25, 2017
A Singaporean celebrity has earned both support and criticism on social media for her rant online about some Singaporeans who seems to have no pride in their work.
Actress/ director Michelle Chong wrote a Facebook status on Saturday which became widely shared and reacted to by her fans and followers, reports Straits Times
In her controversial post, Chong first pointed out how Singapore has the potential to be better if people would make an effort to do a better job.
“I think we have so much potential to be special, to set trends, to be leaders, to be extremely good at something. We have a high literacy rate and are fairly bilingual and well-traveled. We have access to information and resources and we don’t have to worry about civil wars, famines, natural disasters, guns, drugs, political unrest and homelessness (majority of us anyway).”
Chong then went on to criticize the work ethic of some people she met at work throughout her career who just “don’t care about what they do.”
“They don’t check their work, don’t care about how it turns out, don’t take that extra step to value-add or think about how to make it better, don’t want to improve etc. It’s a ‘why should I bother? It’s not like I’m getting paid very much for this job’ or ‘please lah it’s just a job right?’ or ‘do extra for what? I’m still getting the same salary right?’ attitude. I’m not saying we don’t or can’t make mistakes, but maybe just have a little more pride in what we do?”

As of this writing, the post has received over 7,600 reactions, 2,400 shares, and 400 comments, sparking discussions on the Singaporean work culture.
Those in agreement with the star’s message wrote their own experiences supporting her points.
“I would say it is really difficult to find people who are willing to put in extra effort for whatever they are doing,” wrote one netizen.
“In Singapore society where money is valued way higher than passion, it somehow feels really difficult to maintain the passion that we might once have for what we are doing.”
“On point. I wish we had more people we believed in taking pride in what we did, challenge the status quo and wanted more and actually did the work to pursue more and better,” said another one.
There were those, however, who explained that not everyone may have the luxury to love what they do, pertaining to those who ended up with a job only for practical reasons.
“Most people work for the sake of work and not many work for their passion. In Singapore, we really tie up with the routine working hours with less time for leisure and family etc. No time to appreciate the result, as long as can hit the quota and deadlines in the end of the day, secured rice bowl is all the matters, the rest come 2nd,” said one commenter.
“Actually this is very normal because we are overworked,” another netizen wrote.
”Overworked people don’t give a shit. To have pride and all that nonsense requires us to have enough time to dedicate ourselves to the work we do. The society as a whole needs understand the value of good labor before we can even move forward. If we continue to have the bargain mentality — we will go nowhere.”

One netizen even pointed out that Chong, as a celebrity, would not be able to relate to the common people:  
“We the common people in SG, unfortunately, dun all have that sort of luxury. But make no mistake, I do take pride in my work, so much that it hurts to the point of suicide when it is returned with edits. So pardon me if I fail to empathize with ur rant. This is in the exact same vein as celebrity parents who charge and hold talks on parenting like they know what common parents go through because they don’t! Not when they have sponsors and pay for top tier support. Boo hoo Michelle, really.”
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