Anybody here working in the Tuas area? If you work here, you standard know the vibe already. Every single morning, the moment you step out of the MRT or jump onto the factory shuttle bus, you are immediately greeted by the heavy smell of smuggled Malaysia cigarettes. Everywhere you turn—smoking corner, void space behind the canteen, carpark loading bay—it’s just groups standing around non-stop puffing away, talking super loudly.
Honestly, last time I used to think: okay lah, people leave family behind to come here work hard, give and take lor. But nowadays? Wah lau, the situation is getting way out of hand. They carry their cheap Malaysia cigs over, smoke non-stop, earn our SGD, and then cross the causeway back to JB to live like absolute royalty.
And please don’t start with the whole “they earn peanuts” narrative. Their pay is NOT as low as you think! In my plant, their baseline salary is almost identical to mine. The only difference? When they step back across the border, that SGD converts into 3.5x MYR. They are driving nice cars and staying in landed properties or huge condos back home. Meanwhile, Sinkies like us are stuck here paying high BTO mortgages, 9% GST, overpriced daily cai fan, and exorbitant living costs. Who is actually the one getting shortchanged here?
The absolute worst part is the attitude. Got this one guy in my company, let’s call him Ah Meng. He is a manufacturing manager here and he is rude AF, no joke. The way this guy speaks to anyone in a position lower than him is downright disgusting. The shopfloor techs, operators, junior engineers—he talks to them like they are trash. Pure power trip. He looks down on local staff, throws his weight around, and acts like he owns the whole facility just because he holds a manager title.
When local junior guys try to speak up or suggest better workflows, he just dismisses them with that condescending smirk. Sitting in the office every day hearing him yell and dominate conversations, I genuinely feel like I am the foreigner working in Singapore.
Every evening on the long MRT ride back from Tuas Link, I just sit there exhausted wondering how we ended up like this in our own country. High cost of living on one side, and toxic, condescending middle management on the other.
Rant over. Anyone else in Tuas/Juron industrial areas facing this same nonsense or am I just heng enough to work in the ultimate toxic plant?
TL;DR: Working in Tuas, surrounded by toxic middle-management like “Ah Meng” who earn high SGD, live like kings back home, smoke everywhere, and look down on local workers. Feeling like an alien in my own home country.