Last week, on Christmas eve, I posted this status on Facebook:
Do you know how terrible my boss is? In addition to making me work today, he’s not even giving me a half-day off. What a bastard! I hate him! Merry Christmas, everyone!
A not insignificant number people misunderstood this as me bitching immaturely about my boss.
OK people – let’s set this straight: I AM SELF-EMPLOYED; it was a tongue-in-cheek statement that I made for fun.
So don’t take yourselves too seriously, my friends – you’re not important enough for that!
Jokes aside, I want to make a public-service announcement (PSA): the next time you want to contact me for work-related purposes, please go through my agent.
I’m serious about this.
Why?
Two reasons:
In recent months, I’ve come to believe in the paramount importance of an editor for ANYTHING that needs to be done.
[Redacted – ask me in private.]
Hence, I’m appointing Ms Lynn Lee as my agent for any work-related matters.
Please contact her if you have work for me. Similarly, contact her if you have interview questions/media-related enquiries because she is Ms ‘Pau Ka Liau’.
I didn’t post anything on Mon so you’ll get two posts today! Yes! All 25 of you, my regular readers.
Why?
I had a secret pre-New Year’s resolution (pre-New Year because I made it, like, at the start of Dec, I think): to post an entry each day so that I hone my craft by sharpening the saw.
(Except for weekends and public holidays, of course – I’m pro-work-life balance like that.)
However, I missed Mon’s deadline as I was busy making a set of Cards Against Humanity for a New Year’s Eve party.
(It’s really fun; I played it last Fri at a party and I was all, like: WHERE DO I GET A SET OF MY OWN?
It’s sold out, though, so I had to download a PDF file of the game, buy the card stock, print it out at a printer and cut the cards manually (couldn’t be arsed to use a huge-ass cutter).
It took me the better half of a day – “the perks of being self-employed”, according to Prem Vadiveloo, my new Chindian friend – but I certainly had fun playing the game on New Year’s Eve with my friends.)
You weren’t particularly brilliant, but you were necessary for me to move on with life.
So this ain’t a fond farewell, but neither is it a good riddance.
Here’s looking to an awesome 2013.
P.S. This is a longer-than-usual post, but it still counts for one post. Stay tuned for the other post and don’t worry – I won’t cheat you of the money you didn’t pay for reading this premium content!
I refer to the letter “Rest day exception for caregiver domestic workers?” (Dec 20).
All employees – domestic workers or otherwise – deserve a weekly day off (or more) to recharge and recuperate.
However, this creates a conundrum: when caregiving domestic workers are given a day off, no one else will tend to their care-receiving charges, such as wheelchair users or frail seniors.
Instead of doggedly demanding that caregiving domestic workers carry on working on their off days, let’s tackle this problem creatively.
I propose a solution with these three Ps:
Part-time employment.
A job market is created for part-time skilled caregivers who are willing and able to tend to care-receivers on weekends – so long as the remuneration is commensurate with market wages.
So as not to penalise families with the increased financial burden, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Social and Family Development can look into increasing the size and the scope of the monthly Foreign Domestic Worker Grant to cover this additional cost.
Alternatively, affected families can be allowed to claim a Caregivers’ Relief.
Peer support.
If there is a shortage of skilled care-givers, the Council for the Third Age can facilitate the provision of caregiver training to retirees.
This allows actively aging seniors to be involved in taking care of their lesser-abled peers.
Pop-up weekend daycare centres for care-receivers.
Temporary centralised facilities are set up in convenient locales around Singapore on weekends.
Economies of scale will allow, say, three part-time caregivers to tend to about eight care-receivers. This also allows families to pay a lower caregiving fee since more families share the cost of paying for caregivers’ wages.
The facilities can be located in void decks, for example, and be removed at the end of the day so that the spaces can be utilised for other purposes on weekdays.
