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Singaporeans basically have the mentality that working longer than expected on their jobs means that they are doing fine on their jobs. I was talking about this topic with my boss I am working for, and discussing about my past business I had done. For the benefits of doubt for those people who don’t know what OT means, OT means “overtime”. So, if you work overtime in Singapore, people will only praise you that you are so hardworking.

Let’s talk about China’s mentality about OT
In China, people basically have the mentality that if you work overtime, you are not efficient in your job. It only means that you are unable to finish your job on time to hand up. But as we go deeper into the meaning of this in China, we found out that people in China are generally lazy and are unwilling to put in quality work in their job. For those of you who went to China, you will realize that most of the products that you buy are of inferior quality. They always seem to have something in lacking, or not well-implemented.

But if you take an even closer look at the people in China… That’s only because the businesspeople there are unwilling to look for better workers to work for them. They employ unqualified workers at very low cost so that they can make money by beating their competitors in terms of pricing. So when we talk about pricing, I think it is safe to comment that no other countries can ever compete China for their lowest possible selling price. They have basically undercut the whole world in terms of their pricing… Though pricing is cheap, quality is further compromised as well! If the quality is continuing to be compromised, I start to wonder when will China ever fall in their economy… Luckily, they have both human resources and natural resources to back them up to hold much more longer because these two resources are the most lucrative resources that the MNC companies will be very interested to take advantage of… And that’s why we start to see more branded products made in China and yet being priced at a competitive rate.

Let’s talk about USA’s mentality about OT
In USA, people there also have the same mentality that if you work overtime, you are not efficient in your job. It also means that you are unable to finish your job on time. But they have a different situation from China. USA people are generally more conscious about quality control. Whenever we see any brand stating “Made in USA”, we will think it is quite safe to buy from. Given their economy of scale and resources, it is no doubt that they should be in the right position to work without OT.

Let’s come back to talk about Singaporeans’ mentality of OT
Ok, Singaporeans almost have no choice but to work OT in their job. That’s because in Singapore, human is the only resource we have to keep Singapore alive and competitive. Add that with our Singaporean government to ensure our country’s safety and better situation (probably because we are small enough to make a better place for human resources). Our population in Singapore is so small when compared to China or USA… We have to work extra long to cover the losses in time which the two gigantic countries can easily cover just by employing more staff. Basically, OT is a culture of being efficient in Singapore. I didn’t realize that until I mentioned about this topic to my boss. Working extra hard on our business is probably one way to make ourselves a better living environment. That also means more money to be made because more products and services are being produced for sale.

Well, I am quite happy to focus myself on doing sales to bring in more income for myself now. Though it is quite tedious to handle sales for my boss while working on my internet businesses, it is nevertheless the only way out for me to work out my future that I have been looking for… To tell you the truth, I think 24 hours is not enough to use every day…