Can Your Employer Force You To Clear the Rubbish Bin and Vacuum the Office?

If you are working a regular office role, can your employer force you to clear out the trash at the end of the day? By trash, i mean everybody’s trash from the office trash bins.

Can they force you to vacuum the office? I did not sign up to throw trash and why do i need to do these things because the company is too cheap to engage a regular cleaning service?

Share your opinions and experience please.

Netizens’ comments

1. Lady boss forces us to clear rubbish bin, sweep, and mop. Water dispenser also ownself change bottle.
2. Well they definitely can. You can also resign if you don’t agree these “ad-hoc” duties.
3. do la than slowly do
   free lepak time why dont want?
   for trash you start earlier so it dont waste your own after office time
4. Unless your boss is holding a gun to your head, refuse firmly but politely. If he insists, probably time to start looking for a new job, because you don’t know what extra duties he will add to your plate next.
5. “Other duties as assigned”. If you are the only one being arrowed to do it just look for a new job.
6. Depends on how close or good my relationship is with my colleagues. If good, I’ll just do it. If not so good, I’ll just clear my own, & sweep my own area. If boss or others ask, I’ll just reply “I cleared mine. You can clear your own. Why? U got no hands no legs is it? You pang sai want me to wipe for you not?”
7. If it’s in the contract yes? Hahah but in all seriousness, usually they have cleaners so I assume it’s an SME?
8. Clear the bin if you guys take turns and provided you guys are the ones who use the bins or some how your customers use the bins.

I quit from my previous job, my old GM has been trying to contact me on every social platform

My previous manager had sent me an email an hour after I quit to try to get me to work for the company again. He had followed up the next few days with emails asking for my answer which I hadn’t responded to.

I did reply on the weekend confirming that I had quit and would not be returning to work.

The same day the GM had sent me a massive wall of text messages letting me know how I let the team down and how they won’t be able to do my work and how I was always welcome to come back working there whenever.

The following week I received my final paycheck and I thought that was done and settled.

During the week the GM had sent me messages on Facebook claiming as per my previous contract I had to legally work 3 weeks whilst they find a replacement I had asked him to highlight where this was as I knew it didn’t have it in it he wasn’t able to.

He then followed me on Instagram (I have a production account where I do commercials and other work) and he proceeded to comment on 30 posts praising my work??

And then had followed up with a message request asking me to come back and work again with a small bonus,

I screenshoted everything and blocked him and had sent the owners everything the GM had been sending me and letting them know I won’t be coming back at all to ask him to stop contacting me.

Since then I haven’t heard anything from them and I’ve been living my best life. Know your worth and stick up for yourself.

Also side note I got offered a job closer to home which pays more for less work which I have accepted I start next week 🙂

Refusing to clean or cook for my mother in law

I (21) am heavily pregnant with twins and have a 2 year old son.

My husband (27) insisted that we have his mom move in with us due to her losing her husband (6 month prior) and older age.

I from the get go was uncomfortable with my mother in law moving in because she is extremely nitpicking and always finds something wrong with the way I do things.

Ever since she moved in with me she been ordering me around like I am her slave and since she is my husband’s mother I been doing my best to please her but no matter what I do I can’t.

She finds some kinda fault with everything I do!!! It gotten so stressful for me that it ends up leaving me in tears. This one time she asked me to cook something which I never ate before but she refused to help me prepare it so the night before I spend all night trying to research it, only for her to take one bite and tell me it’s awful and throw her whole plate out.

With cleaning she’s always watching me telling me that I’m not cleaning right and that she doesn’t understand how her son could marry someone who doesn’t even know how to be a wife.

I just feel like she’s really disrespectful and when I try to ask her to treat me better she’ll go ran to my husband claiming I was the one being disrespectful to her.

She Constantly orders me around asking me to go to the store for her, clean up after her or cook for her only to say I did it horribly.

I’m pregnant and exhausted and can no longer cope with this anymore so I told my mother in law that enough is enough and that I’m no longer doing anything for her until she learns to treat me with respect and whether she likes it or not I’m the mother of her grandson and unborn granddaughters which makes me family.

She started insulting me and told me that women out here don’t know how to respect their elders and she’s disgusted her son choose me.

She ended up calling my husband which of course my husband heard her side of the story and sympathized with his mom without even listening to me.

He’s upsets and thinks I should be putting more effort in mending the relationship with his mom especially because she is still grieving.

But the thing is I brought this to my husband attention enough times and all he did was downplay his mom’s actions and claim that she’s warm up to me soon enough which she hasn’t.

My bf (33M) of 7 years won’t commit to me (33F)

I (33F) have been with my boyfriend (33M) for 7 years, going on 8 years in September. Not sure if this is too pertinent to my case, but we have known and liked each other since we were 15 years old and reconnected later in our mid-twenties.

Anyway, in the amount of time we have been together, we have lived together for 4 years and have a dog together.

To this date, he has not proposed to me, nor do we have any kids. We have previously talked about kids, but he worries about not being “ready” and we haven’t really touched the topic of marriage.

We just had a small argument over how he still has all his personal mail go to his mom’s house, and nothing that goes to the home we have shared in the last 4 years.

Most recently, he tells me how he plans on buying a house with one of his siblings. It made me feel a little bad because I have been waiting for him to want to buy a house with me.

I can’t help but somehow feel he is not committed to me. When I playfully pester him and ask him “Why do you love me” he gives me dumb childish reasons that don’t feel genuine.

I would move the stars and the moon for this guy, but deep inside I feel he will not do the same for me. As a woman I feel my time is running up. I want the kids, marriage, or even just the damn commitment.

At this point, if he proposes, I will not accept it because why now, and not earlier? It makes me feel like a last resort. I know he may love me, but I feel he does not love me enough.

hi, i am a 19F waiting for university to start this year. I was inspired to seek help on this platform following a post made abt 16hrs ago regarding fam violence as well. my parents have been married for 31 years, giving birth to three daughters (incld me).

post-marriage, my father began to reveal his anger management issues. he would throw furniture around the house, scream at his wife and children. just this sunday, my father got upset over an insignificant issue, throwing the broom at my mother, telling her to “go die, jump down the building, 他妈的, you are useless, etc.”

this has been going on for years, and honestly after speaking to my two sisters, the three of us agreed that all we could remember from our childhood was running away from our father to the toilet, where he would bang on the door, scream and threaten us.

to make things clear, my father has never physically hurt the three of us despite constantly threatening to. he only dares to physically hurt my mother. about 2 years ago, he throw a chair at her, causing her a leg injury (went to seek tcm help but did not collect evidence).

when i was young, the frequency of such violent outbreaks was once every week, but it has reduced to once every 3 months now.

my father was the sole breadwinner of my family for years. as a family of 5, we led a really simple life (no luxuries). my father and mother are diploma holder and o-level holder respectively. my mom dedicated her youth to being a housewife (cooking for us, fetching us to and fro school etc.)

now that my younger sister has entered sec sch, my mom went for a part-time job nearby but still carries out the duties of a housewife. for years, my mom pleaded for my dad to agree to employ a helper so that she could earn income herself, but he would get angry and say that he did not trust a helper.

in all, not working for years meant that my mom does not have savings to seek help and is no where near being financially independent.

because of our finances and financial background, my siblings and i studied hard at school. my older sister obtained a govt scholarship post-As and completed her undergrad and masters overseas (not taking a single cent from my father). i am also looking to hopefully attain a bond-free scholarship to university (hopefully if the gods look favourably on me).

i chose to apply to law school locally because i realised my helplessness and my desire to help others in similar circumstances as myself. i also applied for financial aid to the universities, but i only qualify for the lowest tier of finA bc my gross hh income is around 10k, w the inclusion of my older sister’s fresh grad govt pay.

this makes our pci ard 2k which messes up things for me so badly. note: my sister does not contribute to hh expenses at all, hence her pay will not help sponsor my uni fees.

truthfully, the three of us are at a loss at what to do. our relatives, despite knowing of my father’s violent tendencies, are helpless. one year ago, after a violent fit was thrown, my aunt and her husband tried to mediate the situation by having my family gather for an open conversation.

my sisters and i were open about how scarred we were from the violence, and my mom revealed that she had wanted to divorce him many years ago but pulled it together till today for the sake of the three children.

it ended with my dad throwing a chair at my mom in front of my 2 aunts, 1 uncle and my father’s mother (grandmother). the “counselling/mediation” failed tragically.

yes, i have searched online many times for what we can do to help my mother (and ourselves). however, my mom is averse to seeking help bc of 2 main reasons. (1) we rely on my dad for finances.

if my dad were to be jailed or they are separated/divorce, my mom’s part-time pay is unable to cover my uni fees/younger sister’s sch fees + our hh expenses. my mom does not have money to seek legal aid as well. (2) my mom comes from a traditional family, she had a mindset that the woman should stick with her husband and raise her child up regardless of what happens.

truthfully, no one can help her except herself, if she continues to keep mum about this from the police.

i remember as a kid when my older sister and i could not take it anymore and dialed 999, someone spoke at the end of the line but we were too terrified of the consequences to say anything, and ended up hanging up.

the 3 of us sisters spoke on sunday night after the violent fit was thrown again. my older sis said “we grew up in the worst family and there is nothing we can do to help mama”. the cycle will just keep repeating itself. i am worried that one day, while i am away in uni and my older sister is not at home, my father will do worse things to my mom (what if he takes a knife and kills her or pushes her down) he is a monster whenever he gets upset….

he acts as if nothing happens after every violent fit and treats us nicely as if to get his forgiveness. i am thankful for my dad as he has provided for the 4 of us since young including tuition, sch feed, food. i have never had to worry abt finances. but his violent tendencies are unacceptable.

fellow singaporeans, what can i (and my sisters) do to help my mother?

So for some background my fiancée (24F) and I (26m) have been together for now almost 4 years. She is great, and I don’t think we have any major fights during our 4 years being together, obviously have had disagreements and some small fights, but that’s normal. Other than that, I do really love her.

So we have our wedding planned for a year down the line, after getting engaged 5 months ago. i have been getting more and more involved with her family and seeing more shades of them, and I’m starting to get more concerned.

My fiancée has a one older brother, who has had a very tumultuous life, and has shut down. He doesn’t leave his home, and has trouble maintaining any sort of work and with my most recent conversation with him, said he has given up. That itself is a whole issue.

My future MIL is a single mother, after unfortunately my fiancés father left the family at an early age. Even though she is someone I don’t really have direct conversations with often besides on the artificial level, I have high level of respect for her to be able to work multiple jobs to support herself and her son.

However, she is intimidating and not easy to talk to, but before this situation I would not mind her being my future MIL as it felt like she would stay out of the way due to the fact she is self sufficient. However, I know my fiancée still chips in and helps the house out with finances even though she has her own bills and lives alone.

So, earlier in the morning today, I went to drop off something my fiancée gave me to my future MIL as a favor as my fiancé wasn’t available. I get there, and the MIL invites me in for tea and I say ok. I get in there and we start talking, the conversation starts to get a weird place and then she starts bawling crying about how difficult and hard her life has been, specifically because of her lonely life and her son, and now with her daughter also being taken away from her so she has nothing left.

I say her daughter isn’t being taken away, and we will always be here to support her. Then she starts opening up about how she expects me to support her because of my means and she knows how much I make. She cited reasons as she is getting older and can’t physically work anymore and the son is a lost cause, and she said she can’t continue to ask her daughter as it’s embarrassing for her.

I didn’t understand the logic and was kind of in shock, so I just nodded my head. (Why is it not embarrassing asking me?). We just then continued talking about other stuff then I left. She then also asked me to specifically keep this between us. (I make a lot of money)

In the car I try calling my fiancée because I was mad on why she would tell her mom how much I make as I told specifically to keep that quiet, but she said she’s still busy at work, apologized, and let’s meet up early morning tomorrow to talk about it. I told her the high level of what happened, but I don’t think she understands how weird it got. I was also kind of mad, so maybe was being kind of rude.

So now that I have digested this I don’t know if I’m taking this as serious as I should. Is this a big red flag? How should I handle this? How should I discuss this with my fiancée?

Is it wrong to be rich?

I come from a middle class family, parents raised me up, put me through university, and now I’m out in the working world making a living for myself in corporate. Like many others, I share the Singaporean dream of climbing the corporate ladder and possibly striking the jackpot in Singapore pools.

As a sandwiched class of society, I have been observing people from different financial and socioeconomic backgrounds. I have friends who are less fortunate in life, with terminally ill parents and young siblings to support. I also have friends who are wealthy and comfortable, with wonderful parents helping them with their housing down payment and buying them a car upon graduation.

I too, like many others, aspire to be wealthy and provide a comfortable life for my kids in future. Which is why I understand why many parents from wealthy families “spoil” their children, because no parent will want to see their child struggle in life. As such, many outsiders will give comments such as “spoilt brat from rich family” or “privileged and silver spoon”.

Some of this children from wealthy families do actually appreciate their generational wealth and are humble. Some, not so much, and will splurge their parents money irresponsibly. But regardless of weather that wealthy child is humble, or one who is irresponsible, they will still be subjected to such labels.

I always see negative comments in Facebook and instagram posts, when it comes to wealthy people. Take for example the recent spotlight on a family putting their bungalow up for sale and donating 60 million to charity. Many, actually most, of the comments are saying that they are trying to evade taxes through their charitable deeds or just looking to be in the limelight and doing it for fame.

Another example is the case of Naomi Neo, a local influencer in Singapore. Whenever she splurge on her children, for example on the birthday for her daughter, people were just so toxic and negative in the comments.

Now bringing me back to the question, is it wrong to be rich? Because if being rich subjects me to such hate, it seems like a curse.

But it’s a curse that I will want to suffer, in silence.

“Hi, I am back after ranting about terrible landlords from hell last time. As I will be moving out soon, my asshxxx landlords ask me to settle with the spoilt mattress, table, moist wall and bed frame.

Since when I destroyed all these stuffs as their unit tbh quite subpar in standard. I had stayed at quite number of places and it was first time encountering this where my previous landlords never gave me such issues.

I hope karma is real and let all gods from different religions punish them and let every calamity strikes them for eternity. Period.”

Netizens’ comments

1. Common sense to check all items taken over when contract signed. You only have yourself to blame. 
   • people who say this are either landlords or people too delusional and speak on behalf of your landlord. Did your landlord offer you a discount for speaking for them?
2. Lots of landlords and agents just want to forfeit your deposit and ask for more. Wear and tear is common but asking to replace the whole thing is just too much.
3. Tenants are at the landlords’ mercy especially those barbaric ones
4. You should have taken lots of photos when taking over the rental unit, check and highlight for defects before moving in. Now it’s your word against their words.
5. Video proof with the landlord inside when taking over the unit. Else you already forfeited your deposit
6. You didn’t take care of the house as if it is your own, so you got to pay for it for destroying stuffs ? Isn’t it normal ?
7. Different landlords have different way of doing things, anyway consider yourself unlucky to get a landlord who is a monster.
8. You can kiss your deposit good bye
9. I don’t think there’s anything you can do if you have no evidence or any way of proving that the furniture were already spoiled before your stay.