Singaporeans are always complaining about foreigners coming in to steal their jobs. It's been the subject of huge debate, with a recent increase as the Foreign Worker Levy set to increase soon.
Me? I'm very pro foreigners, as I find it virtually impossible to find good local staff. It's not that I don't want to hire Singaporeans. It's certainly much easier to have someone start without prologed approval and appeals with the Ministry of Manpower, followed by the massive IR21 form when they decide to leave.
But sometimes it's virtually impossible to find locals willing to work in the Aesthetic industry. Take our recent interview. This girl was experienced, having worked in another clinic previously. She had left to join a beauty salon, but desperately wanted to come back into the medical side. So we gave her the job, waited for her to serve her notice, then she told us she wasn't going to join us. So we wasted over a week.
A few months ago, another local girl was all set to join us then never turned up on the first day! She refused to answer her mobile till Candy called her with her personal phone. This girl picked up and pretended she was a friend and the girl had left her phone with her whilst she moved house!????!!!!!
Yep! That's how we got crazy Pati, the Australian who has left the country without paying taxes. Okay, so the foreign workers aren't without problems either...
So anyway, we've been advertising again. We need Therapists for both the clinic & spa. And we ran the ad in the Straits Times twice, on Friday and Saturday. Now we need a Singaporean, PR or Malaysian for the spa. We can't get a pass for any other nationality. But no Singaporeans answered the ad at all! Not one! And Saturday's supposed to be day Therapists actually look for jobs? Hmmm.........
The only interest has been from Filipino nurses (and a Physiotherapist). Also someone from Myanmar with incomprehensible English, so that's a straight no. It's hard. Raising the levy is a great idea if there are enough locals to fill in the demand. But there just aren't, and stopping businesses from hiring staff outside is just making it more difficult for us to survive.
