I am interning at a certain popular e-commerce company. I will be here until the end of the year, and it is quite dreadful every day.

It is not that my superiors are nasty. They are friendly and teach me stuff.

However because most of the employees are not Singaporean, the work culture is quite different, even the way they treat Singaporeans is also different. They only care about their fellow countrymen, so if the team consists of people from different backgrounds, the team will not be bonded. It is quite obvious that they are only friendly with each other for work relations.

Recently a new full-timer joined my team. He is also from that country. As such, he is treated extremely well. He was given a tour around the office and they even treated him to lunch. Back when I joined, there was no such treatment lol. But I guess it is because I am a temporary staff there is no need to treat me that well. I am fine with that.

However, my supervisor has been assigning him work that was meant for me.

Hence ever since he joined my workload has become significantly less and I don’t learn as much anymore. I am also kept out of the loop for projects that I used to be part of, and he has replaced me. My supervisor even asked me to give him my script which I spent 1 entire month working on so that he can take over my duties.

Now I dread going to work because I want to be busy and learn things but now I cannot because everything has been passed to this new guy. Maybe my supervisor finds it easier to communicate with someone of a similar background as her, so she stopped giving me important tasks and instead gave them to him.

It has come to the point where every day I have to ask for work because I have nothing to do. But the work assigned to me is extremely mundane. I miss the days before this new full-timer joined. I really don’t know how I am going to handle the next few months on this team.

I have seen many people always say that they want to work in a big company after their university graduation, but they don’t know the bitterness of working in a big company.

Everyone in the big company has always been intrigued and often tells right from wrong.

Only the treacherous and cunning talents can survive in the big company safely. Going down, honest people will soon be eliminated by big companies because those old drivers will try their best to harm newcomers.

For example, put sleeping pills in your water bottle to make you feel uncomfortable after eating and you can’t go to work on time in the next day. Thus,you will be fired by the boss. The famous saying of big companies: If you are strong, I will use any means to drive you away. If you are weak, I will look down on you and I will also drive you away!

I have only worked in a large company for two years and I don’t want to work it anymore.

Therefore, I suggest that you go to small and medium-sized companies to hone after graduation. Please don’t go directly to large companies. You are still very tender, so let yourself understand what I told you that the ugly side of society wonders so you can decide whether you want to work in a large company or not.

I’m back to work in my old bean company.

Currently, I am the general manager of my father’s company. My father tells their employees whoever dares to harm me, my father will expel that person directly or they will be sent to court if the case is serious.

I feel very happy and comfortable because I can go back to my old bean company to help my father work instead of going to a big company to see those scumbags.”

I’ve graduated for couple years now and recently old friends started to reconnect.

Randomly initiated communication with University acquaintances has gone from “Hi, you want to go out have coffee? (Insurance)” to “Hi, can you refer me into your company?”

I find it hard to reject the request so I try to help – not really looking for a referral bonus since I may want to leave.

It got really annoying when the person demanded how she can get the job (basically asked me for a sure-win strategy to offer to her future boss) and a lot of sensitive info.

I didn’t want to reveal sensitive data so I gave vague info and the conversation went in the direction of “I still do not have a plan after talking to you”. “This convo is not helpful”.

What is the world coming to?

Why are people feeling so entitled?

Why is it that she feels it’s my job to think of a way for her to secure this job even though I haven’t seen nor talked to this person for past 10 years?

I got very tired halfway through and just agreed to whatever was being said even if it was blatantly wrong. Didn’t feel like this person is worth my time.

I ended the call by pretending I had another call (again, not good at rejecting)

How should I reject these people nicely Or let them know in a civilised manner Idm helping to refer but stop talking to me like I’m her biatch.

Thank you for all the help and inspirations in advance!

I(31F)am a nurse, & work at a large medical group. I’ve been with the company for 8 years & I am considered a “seasoned” employee.

My colleague(38F) has been there 5 years & is a marginal employee who has managed to get away with just about everything with no disciplinary action.

She comes in late, calls out often and posts about it on social media, she questions the doctor, refuses to perform tasks because “she’s not comfortable”, and has had verbal altercations with patients. The entire team is dumbfounded at how she hasn’t been fired.

Complain

I’ve complained to my boss about how she doesn’t do her share of work and the workload always falls on the rest of us. She manages to have friends and nurses that cover for her regardless.

The frustration has caused a lot of tension between the staff because we have no choice but to pick up her slack. My boss knows & sees the frustrations, he says he’s tried in the past to discipline her and she went to HR and reported him for ‘biased treatment’. I contacted his boss, the director, and expressed my concerns and received the same response. I reached my breaking point a few days back when two of us nurses were running around tending to patients, while she sat there staring into her computer.

A netizen @diurnaowl, shared how he bought an iPad and an Apple Pen from Shopee but it came with issues and he can’t get a refund for his problematic purchase.

Here is what he said

I recently purchased an Ipad and Apple Pen from ShopeeMall but there is a problem with the Ipad.

When I received the Ipad and Apple Pen, I got a confirmation email to verify that the order was received and I clicked the link from the email since everything was delivered and packaged fine without thinking much of it.

The problem comes when I turn on the Ipad and if you’re familiar with apple products, you need to do a Quick Start set-up either manually or using your old phone. Once I reached the wifi page, after pressing next on the top right screen, it says that the Ipad is under remote management by a company.

After going on Apple forums, I realised I wouldn’t be able to use the Ipad unless I miracly have access to the company’s IT.

So I contacted the seller through the Shopee app,but despite them being an official reseller, their replies are unuseful and of no help, which is why I contacted shopee team for help.

They responded via email 1 hour later (on Sunday) with the promise of looking into the problem within 3-5 business days. Friday night comes around so I drop an email asking for an update and then later contacting through the Shopee app directly and still no response from them.

So I called in during Saturday afternoon (during my work break) and finishing the call and finally getting a response from the shopee team asking for evidence (not sure why this took so long if that’s all they were going to ask for) which I complied to.

Finally I got a response today saying shopee will not give me a refund as the seller states that the problem is an “internal company security system issue” and the item is not faulty and that I should contact the company myself (which should not be my responsibility as they should have removed this before it was even shipped to my address).

any advice/help would be appreciated!

update: I sent them another email explaining that the remote management isn’t something easily removable and including an explanation regarding lemon law and in response I got: the same auto-generated email saying I need to provide (image proof/video proof/amount to refund etc.), which I’ve already given to Shopee in our previous emails.

update 2: after sending the proof again, surprise they sent another auto-generated email asking for proof 🫠. Had my sibling go to the apple store this friday and the apple store currently has my iPad on hold. (their customer service is trying harder than the reseller and shopee)

Netizens’ comments

• Rookie mistake of clicking item is delivered without checking the status of it properly first. Always always check first.
• You can try to bring it to an Apple store (like an actual Apple store, not authorised reseller) and ask the staff for advice.
• Opposite experience with Lazada. Bought “new” Samsung phone, breaks after 11 months. Take it to Samsung warranty they say we were scammed with refurbished phone so not got 12 month warranty. Go back to seller, they run away. Speak to Lazada, they gave full refund pretty quick.
  Note:- the shop that ripped us off changed from Lazada to QOO10.
• I dunno but I would try bring it to Apple and let them know about the reseller also. Could be some procedures for resetting which they are not following, and Apple can be really particular about their reputation.

Visiting HDB estate as a tourist

I’m Australian and will be visiting Singapore next month for four days. I am wanting to do a mix of touristing and non-touristy things while I’m there, and have been told by a friend who lived in Singapore when she was growing up that I should visit a HDB estate.

My question is, how does one do that as a foreigner? I’m worried I will seem intrusive and obviously I do not want to do anything that may be perceived as offensive or distasteful.

Thank you :))

Netizens’ comments

• I think she meant visiting an iconic estate or a heartland. Not like go around the flats hahaha. Visit a heartland with hdb, small shops and coffeeshops.
  • Haha I know!! But I wanted to check that it wouldn’t seem disrespectful to residents?
    • not disrespectful , but ppl will just wonder “what is this ang mo doing around here” haha (for the estates further from the city). More curious than repulse
• Ok, so the big HDB estates take up a lot of room. They are multiple buildings with interconnecting paths and sometimes gardens and grass. They have playgrounds, outdoor seating and meeting areas. The ground floor level is free to walk around, some will have shops and restaurants at ground level under certain buildings. It is often the fastest way to walk somewhere is to cut through a HDB complex rather than walk the outside roads… No one will care if you are walking around having a look, sitting at a bench watching the world go by, or going in and out of the shops. Just don’t try and look into any of the apartments themselves, there are strict rules about “peeping tom” type things. Ask your friend for some suggestions or Google some classic HDBs in the area you are staying or visiting. There are some old more run down ones, some cool architecture ones, some modern very nice ones, and everything in between. High-rise, low rise, coffee shops, wet markets and hawker centres… enjoy
• I think it’s totally fine! In fact it seems like a great activity to do as you can experience the more authentic side of Singapore.
  I’d suggest avoiding the “high end” flats like pinnacle at Duxton or skyville at dawson, since those are considered outliers and more premium. Like many have suggested, old estates would be great. Even better if there’s good food nearby.
  You can just casually walk around the blocks, see what type of amenities we have like exercise corners or neighbourhood shops, appreciate the design and architecture, do some people watching and observe people going about their daily lives in the heartlands. As long as you don’t peep into the houses or stare at people it should be all good.