Singapore should be a happy place. It has low crime rates, clean streets, and an integrated transport system that puts much of the industrialized world to shame. Medical care is readily available, education affordable, 80% of the population is housed in pleasant government-built rent-controlled apartment blocks hubbed around convenient shopping malls and libraries. Most importantly a portion of every citizen’s earnings are allotted to a CPF (Central Provident Fund) from which they can draw upon for home purchases and eventual retirement.
If this sounds all too perfect, it actually is. Singapore is a masterpiece society yet almost as mentally self-contained and self-absorbed as the hermetically sealed North Korea. This is not necessarily so much a bad thing as a surfeit of a good thing.
Living in Singapore has a theme park-like quality. People have grown so used to having much provided for them that almost everything is taken for granted. So efficient and effective has the government been in provisioning its people with services and benefits over the last two and a half generations that it has become all too easy for the populace to block out the world beyond its borders. With so much of basic daily needs already met, everyday life has become a relentless focus on the prosaic: Singaporeans scurry around in a task-driven world focused on the minute parsing of time where crises are defined by getting dinner for the kids, taking them to tuition or after school activities, making the next appointment, not missing the regular lunch break with all of the office pool, or not getting to the gym…etc.
The issue with living in Disneyland is that every now and then, reality intrudes, the fun ends payment has to be made and visitors go home.
And over the past few months, it has become clear that the denizens of this particular park are feeling restive.
For example, a 2016 survey conducted by a jobs board revealed that Singapore’s workforce had the lowest “happiness rating” in all of the ASEAN countries.
Rated on a 10-point scale, the Job Happiness Index reveals workers’ sentiment ratings and future outlooks as to how happy and satisfied they are and likely will be with their jobs. Filipinos scored the highest with an average 6.58 score; Singaporeans averaged 5.09.
To compile this Index surveys were conducted in June 2016 with 67,764 participants from across 7 countries. Respondents came from many position levels ranging from new graduates to supervisorial/managerial ranks and executive management, representing various roles and multiple industries with varying tenures.
What gives?
Singaporean workers share many of the same aspirations and motivations common to other workforces: good co-working relationships, a company’s reputation, corporate values and salary. However, the study also found that one of the more significant factors is the location of the office. Workers want to work at a place that is convenient within reach (though the definition of that is fungible).
Yet is this possible in an economy where land is scarce, property values (despite a decrease in process) are still among the highest on the planet? If not a condo, EC or apartment just how easy is it to convert that hard-earned CPF into an HDB flat?
In fact, are students even being properly equipped to meet the ever-evolving demands of the economy?
Assuming yes to both of the above, are Singaporean firms aligned in their offerings with what is important to the those who registered as ‘unhappy’ in the survey?
Or is this survey just the tip of the iceberg and has the time come for a more comprehensive discussion on the very nature of Singapore’s future – the next 50 plus years? The Little Red Dot has made it this far on a combination of bold leadership and technocratic incrementalism. Is it time for a new course that will help secure the future of Lee Kuan Yew’s great experiment?