Any lawyer here? Need some advice, thank you! I work in a restraunt chain which has quite a few branches over Singapore.

There is a problem where an Area Manager in charge of the North side is intentionally finding mistakes of us workers in Central side through the monitoring of the CCTVs.

This is what I heard but that Area Manager dislikes my Restaurant Manager and is intentionally undermining his conduct by observing through our CCTVs, finding every small mistakes we employees made.

Thereafter sharing the CCTV footage around various other Managers and Area Managers through Whatsapp.

I was wondering if there can be anything to be done? Me and my fellow colleagues do not feel comfortable when working, especially when someone is intentionally finding mistakes we may or may not have made intentionally.

Netizens’ comments

1. Obligatory not a lawyer. If the North side area manager doesn’t have the clearance to view the Central side’s CCTV, or is breaking some company rule by distributing the CCTV footage to the other area manager and managers, then you might be able to do something about it.
   But if none of these behaviours violate company policy, or the other managers condone it, wherein the only unhappy people are you and your fellow colleagues, then you’re pretty much stuck.
   In a professional setting, mistakes are still mistakes, no matter the intent. Yes, it’s crappy of the higher ups to go out of their way to spy on workers and penalise them for everything done wrong, instead of using empathy, but at the end of the day a mistake is still the fault of whoever made it.
   Unless you’re saying yall did not make the mistake and the area manager is framing you by editing the footage or taking things out of context. Otherwise, there is no case
2. Ask your Restaurant Manager to inform your Central Area Manager to do something about it then.
   They should be the ones solving problems that hinder the staff’s morale in working.

Are thefts at Hawker centres common?

I arrived in Singapore for the first time yesterday, and visited Maxwell Hawker centre today. I read online that it’s common practise to ‘claim’ tables by placing something on them, before getting food.

I left ~$30 of groceries to do this, as the only other thing I had on me at the time was my phone. When I came back with food 5 minutes later, there was a group seated there and my groceries had been taken.

Not a big deal, but I was wondering if this type of theft is common in Hawker centres? I’ll be sure to bring along something invaluable to place on tables next time.

Netizens’ comments

• Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard of this….. usually nothing gets taken(unless it’s cash? Likely coz they can’t find the person who dropped it) and leaving a packet of tissue would suffice for “reservation”
• This is the first time I’ve heard of groceries being stolen, I’m so sorry you experienced this as a visiting tourist. I would advice you to place a packet of tissue instead moving forward. Hope you have a great time visiting our country!
• Maybe they thought it was rubbish and cleared it.
• I just saw someone using his handphone to reserve his table last week in a small coffeeshop. Even in safe Singapore, it’s the first I’ve seen and I felt nervous for him too. Like others have said, sorry you had a negative experience! Glad to hear you don’t sound too affected by it, and hope you enjoy the rest of your stay here.
• I once choped a table at a hawker centre with a black and white portrait of myself and it worked wonders, especially during the hungry ghost month.

Why Singapore hates bicycle riders so much?

I’m not in a position to judge because I’m on a pass here, but rather curious. Why does the Singapore government hate bicycle riders so much?

Maybe it’s different in other areas, but bike parking doesn’t exist around River Valley, or it’s located in the same place where smokers hang out, so every time I ride to say Funan or Great World, I must crawl through smokers and them awful fumes.

The park connection along the Singapore River, where personal mobility devices are allowed with no limits, is designed so you can’t ride without always being vigilant.

Poor pedestrians have no idea it’s supposed to be a “bike highway” and walk in zig zags or rows. Some stretches even have restaurant staff suddenly walking from behind columns with food and beverages.

Near the Great World, the connector goes through the children’s play area. It’s total pandemonium, and it’s to believe that it was designed this way but wasn’t a quick band-aid afterthought.

Being a pedestrian is no easier, but at least you can fit those narrow footpaths or navigate through the labyrinth of tables and trash bins in front of shophouses.

What do you think? From the outside, with all those car laws, Singapore appears like pedestrian heaven, but after living here for a while, I realize that unless you have a car, you’re a second-class citizen in the city.

Netizens’ comments

• because of the infrastructure here that pits cyclists against cars and pedestrians. there is no where for cyclists to cycle. on the roads cars feel they have the right of way, and the same for pedestrians on the sidewalk.
• The Park Connector Network was originally envisioned as nature trails by NParks back in 1995. It was never meant to be used as proper cycling infrastructure. But it was co-opted by LTA when they started getting serious about it around 2010.
  That’s why it’s so bad in much of the city centre, and why it’s built to the best standards in parks like the ECP.
• As someone who took up cycling in a cycling friendly country (even bicycle parts are exempt from GST here), learned driving and lived there.

My observations on riders in SG are as follows.

1. SG driving training doesn’t say much about sharing the roads with cyclist and how one should drive whenever encountering them. As i know it is just a brief mention and there’s no strong emphasis on putting on driver’s onus for a cyclist’s safety.
2. SG roads weren’t originally designed with cyclists in mind, so they are to take up a car lane.
3. Bicycles on the road are only becoming popular in the last 15 years or so. Therefore it is understandable many drivers are impatient having to put up with something that wasn’t in great numbers as before.
4. Cyclists on the other hand also felt that how drivers should respond to them is an assumed entitlement without much regards how an average driver generally didn’t have to put up with them previously. I believe many who learnt driving in SG weren’t trained to face scenarios where cyclists cut across lanes just to turn right in a major intersection or having bicycles on flyovers. Cyclists simply expect drivers to somehow give way.
5. There’s no concrete and uniform cyclists education in Singapore (as far as I know). Cyclists are pretty much rather free moving while on the road. e.g. going against direction of traffic, adhering to either traffic or pedestrian lights whenever one is more convenient. Cycling in a rather unpredictable manner on the road.
6. On pedestrian paths, cyclists expect pedestrians give way to them whereas in other countries cyclists are instead expected to stop. This poses many safety hazards to pedestrian. In pedestrian malls, cyclists should be expected to walk their bikes than to speed through.
7. Lights on bicycles are not standardised. I have strobing front lights, or strobing rear WHITE lights. Brightness of which can blind other road users.
8. Blasting loud music or radio on a bike.

Anyone here has experience of bars or restaurants prioritising service of expats Over local patrons?

We were at a bar that’s popular with expats and we couldn’t help feeling that we were prioritised last by the service vs the other foreign patrons.

We were by no means difficult. We kept to ourselves except when ordering and asking for the bill. Unfortunately this isn’t the first time I’ve experienced something like that.

Pre covid I’ve had a couple of similar experiences elsewhere. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Edit: well what the heck? Decided to search reviews and sort it by lowest and the first one star review said that he was discriminated at the place because he’s singaporean.

Netizens’ comments

• Write a review and don’t patronise anymore. Such stuck up establishments I’ll avoid
• Ah yeah I did, it was probably mid 2010s and I went to the bar just near my office with a few friends (it was a Friday evening). We approached the wait staff and asked if there was a table for 3-4 pax, it was crowded and the staff did a cursory glance and told us it was fully booked.
  So we turned around and left. But literally behind us was a group of expats, same number of people and went up to the same wait staff and asked for a table. The response was totally different. She told them yeah it’s full but she’ll help them see if there was a table and went around looking. We went like wth but didn’t bother with creating drama.
• It happens from time to time, particularly at the higher-end Western places. We can spend the same amount but the staff will only snap to attention or beam at the foreign diners.
• Not a bar but a taxi, and I don’t think it’s just a spending thing. I’m a Singaporean female. I was once with a New Zealand male friend of mine and we were in a cab together. I gave the cabbie directions. When we arrived, I paid the cabbie.
  The cabbie turned around, gave me the change, turned to my friend who had said nothing, and said “Thank you, sir”. Then ignored me.
  What!?

My girlfriend has been invited to dinner by a male client as a thank you and I think the whole thing is really inappropriate.

Myself(M24) and my girlfriend(F24) have been together for 4 years.

My girlfriend has been working as an intern for a company and one of their clients asked her to dinner on Friday to say thank you for her work. It would just be the two of them even though it wasn’t just my girlfriend who worked with him and he wants to bring her to a really expensive restaurant that has 9 courses each paired a glass of wine so there will be a lot of alcohol involved as well. Is this ringing anyone else’s alarm bells? This guy is in his mid too late 30’s and he wants to bring a 24 year old on the graduate programme of a company he’s briefly worked with to a stupidly expensive restaurant as a thank you. The dinner will set him back around 600 euro. He’s also messaged her about it on her own phone so she gave him her personal number which I also think is inappropriate.

She’s saying that she can’t say no now because he’s already got the table and it’s a top restaurant so I guess he pulled some strings or some crap but I think that’s bullshit too. A restaurant like this would have a cancellation filled in a minute with no notice. I can’t blame her for wanting to go to this place as it would probably take me about 6 months to get a table and half a months salary to take pay for it but this is really inappropriate on his part right?

i don’t think my girlfriend wants to cheat on me. She didn’t have to tell me about the dinner so If she wanted to sleep with the guy she could have without me knowing(We both still live at home).

She just wants to go to a restaurant that she probably wont get the opportunity to go to again for a long time at least. I understand that these are not the right circumstances for her to go to the restaurant and thats probably something we have to talk about but I don’t think it’s malicious on her part.

The advice I wanted was that I’m not crazy in thinking this is really inappropriate from this guy and its something that can be brought to her superiors. my girlfriend is brilliant and I have no doubt that she will receive all the recognition she deserves in time but she’s an essentially an intern and had no major role in this client’s business in her company.

My colleague saw me stealing at work and now everyone treats me like a criminal.

My boss asked me to throw away expired food and I decided to sneak it into my car. I did not realise that my coworker was in his car during his lunch break and must have seen me and told everyone that he saw me stealing.

It was a whole thing where my boss came to check my car himself and was met with a couple of dry buns and some sad looking apples and oranges.

He said that it was fine and I wasn’t in any trouble but I should have asked first because it looked suspicious that’s all.

Now you would think that it blew over but now everyone at work knows and treats me differently. They treat me like I’m going to steal their phones or bags.

I had nothing to eat at home so it seemed like a good idea at first but I thoroughly regret it.

Netizens’ comments

• Idk about you but at my job all expired food is up for grabs no questions asked. If such a policy exists at your place maybe you could ask your boss to hold a meeting or send a reminder message that it’s okay to do so
• I have always belived, that if you see someone walking away with a small amount of food,no matter how suspicious it may seem let them be. You dont know the story, and its surprising how many people live in poverty right under your noses, without you ever noticing unless you look hard. Its not like they are stealing gold bullions. I had a colleague some time ago who would only drink water at lunch and say she is on a fast or some excuse if we ask her. Turned out she was putting two of her kids through college and didnt have anything left. I used to buy take away lunch and sometimes bought one extra meal and used to drop it at her desk stating I ordered some extra and now doesnt feel like eating it, and if she could help me finish it/get rid of it. She would never have accepted if I were to straight up ask her.

So, i have always had a domestic helper in my household since i was a baby, i am 30 now, My family still has one, but now ive been paying.

Anyways, my current helper is great, she cooks better than my mom, for real. Her job is just to cook,clean and take care of my dog.

Nevertheless, she has her own room in my house. She is free to do whatever she wants, she is own her own schedule. When my family goes out to dinner, we bring her as well. When we go for movies, we bring her as well. When my mom went for her short trip with her friends recently, she went as well. I am not gonna list everything, but you get the idea. It is not specificially for this current helper,but with all the helpers my household has ever had

Ever so often, and i mean i have seen this soo many times, i see a family eating at some seafood restaurant, one big family. And in another table, their helper would sit all by herself eating fried rice or some mixed rice, while the rest of the family eat a huge meal of crabs/fish

I have also seen where a big family (all the cousins,aunt, uncles) get together, they’d bring their helpers along. And again all the helpers would be seated separated in one table eating fried rice or some thing like that, while the rest of the family would be eating a huge ass meal.

I experienced this yesterday too, and i wanted to tell off the family, but then again i am not confrontational.

It is strange to me, as if there is no food at home, and i decided to order Ceasers’ pizza, either my helper allows me to decide for her what type of pizza she wants, or she tells me what pizza she wants or she says’ “i dont want to have pizza today, i want double McSpicy” like it is 2nd nature, no matter how long the helper has been with us

And please don’t say, they can’t eat “blah blah” that’s why. Or because maybe it is not halal, i dont believe thats the case.

And recently, i was invited to some birthday party. And was asked to stay longer for some drinks.

And in that household, they have a helper to take care of the child. So we were all mostly guys, in the hall. While the TV was on, basically it was noisy, as people were drinking.

And then the helper was at the corner of the hall, fixing up some partition, so i asked what was she doing, and was told, she was going to sleep. i took a peak in this makeshift room, it was just a bed, with some suitcase underneath, and the partition surrounds the bed. Thats it. I was like WTF.

But didnt say anything, as i am not confrontational.

I would like to know why? And it only in recent years that i have been seeing this, i have not seen this when i was younger, maybe more people are hiring helpers.

I said I love you by accident

I went to the supermarket last night, I was getting something for my hair and this beautiful woman and I were in the same aisle , she was stunning,

she was tall but made taller with platform boots and skinny as hell and her head was shaved , she looked beautiful and badass , she was giving me GI Jane meets My Chemical Romance .

anyways I smiled at her in the aisle because I loved her aesthetic and I have been on a personal journey of trying to smile and make very basic small talk with strangers in hopes to improve my social confidence .

when I went to self checkout she was there too and as I was leaving I wanted to say “I Love your shoes ” but I said ” I love you ” and she said “oh thanks ” …….I booked to my car because i was embarrassed AF .

please tell me im not the only socially awkward creation out there .

Netizens’ comments

• Would’ve been a fantastic ending if she said I love you back to you
• Funny story. Have done same. TY for validation.
• I hate when the server brings me my meal at a restaurant, says “Enjoy your meal!” and my brain defaults to “You too!”
• I said I love you to my boss on the phone before

I saw ads on Facebook on money loan with low interest rate, I clicked on the link to indicate my interests to take up a loan.

On 28 Jul, a man named Jack called me and asked me what’s the loan for, and told me he was from “credit 89” and he told me my approved amount is $30k, but he need to do a test payment.

He transferred $1k to my bank and required me to return $250 x 5 plus an additional $1.3k to clear. I paid the $250 x 5, and eventually paid $1.3k on 17th aug. Upon transferred the $1.3k, he told me this amount did not go to him as the underground finance cannot pay him because i did not write his code JACK8888 on the comment. He told me to transfer again before he can disburse the $30k to me. I was worried i cannot get my loan thus I transferred $1.3k again.

He then turned aggressive and scolded me why I put a ref and did not save the recipient’s name as JACK8888, I stopped transferring any more money and blocked his contact.

Police have been made by both me and my company.

Investigations are going on…