Job Discussion Forums

[sheepshead]

This post is a bit off topic on living and working in Singapore. I hope that it remains on the "cafe" for all to read.

A warning to all those who seek employment in Singapore as a Teacher! I intend to give a few facts which you will need to consider if you are thinking about working in a private school or education establishment in Singapore.

You will need accommodation which will go from about S$1.2k to several thousand dollars per month for a private apartment. The closer you are to town (the main business centre is Orchard Road) the higher the cost of apartments. If you go to the outskirts of Singapore, you will pay less but still a considerable sum of money a month. Rent for a private apartment here may start at S$1.2k upwards. The down side is travel time to and from work.

Government owned Housing Development Board (HDB) apartments are available from the owner but you only rent a �room� from them. The owner then locks up his / her room and if any authority from the Government asks questions then you are �obligated� to answer that the owner is out but lives in that room. Although such practice is illegal and the authorities at present seem to be turning a blind eye to it, you may find your self in a situation in the future which you may wish that you never got into in the first place.

You will be required to pay a deposit of a month�s rent along with a month�s rent in advance along with a spotters fee equal to a month�s rent for the estate agent. This means that you must have three times the cost of rent in your hand to get into an apartment. Your contract will include a clause to state that if you leave before a set time (usually 6 months) you forfeit your deposit. You are locked in!

There will be a clause to state that if something goes wrong with anything below a stated value, you are required to replace or repair it at your cost. This means that if your land lord or land lady has not replaced the electrical fittings then you pay and they get the benefit of your stay. You are locked in!

You will find your monthly expenses rate something like this: utilities (water and electricity a/c room) up to S$150:00 pm. Gas for your kitchen cooker will cost around S$10 pm if you cook meals. Telephone: this depends on the use if it is a landline. Mobile phones are another thing where you will be locked in for an 18 month contract with penalties if you break the contract before time. You are locked in!

Broad band internet at home and TV are also locked into an 18 month contract with penalties if you break the contract before a set time. You are locked in!

Meals as cheap as S$3:50 (noodles and a bowl of rice) can be had from Hawker�s Centres or food courts. For an Indian or Malaysian / Muslim meal (delicious) you can expect to pay up to S$7 per meal. If you are a big vegetable eater forget about having meat and three vegetables or salad with your meal.

Alcohol is not cheap due to the high excise placed on it by the Government. For a bottle of beer you will pay around S$5:30 at a supermarket or a 7 � 11 shop. Bar prices start at S$5 per pot in the happy hour and rises to S$7 pp after that. Spirits will cost you S$10 per nip with coke etc. A bottle of spirit will set you back around S$60 in a supermarket. Smokes are, I believe, around S$10 per packet.

Toiletries and some other daily requirements are sold in �bulk� which can be a nuisance.

Daily travel may cost you up to S$80 or more per month to go to and from work.

You should now do your sums and obtain a truthful cost of living for your lifestyle.

Teaching contracts may have a clause to state that you are required to serve a three month probation period in which time if you are found not suitable you could be dismissed. This clause then leaves you at the mercy of your landlord / lady for refund of your deposit (consider it lost!) However, you are required to give three months notice of terminating your employment. Failure to do so will give your employer the chance to penalise you by demanding a return of three months salary. Your contract may also (like my contract did) state that if you bring the school into disrepute then they can sack you in 24 hours. (Who determines what is disrepute?) Your only re-dress is the Ministry of Manpower and I believe that the due process may take up to three months to get into action and you are required to attend the hearing which may or may not go against you.

So far I have dealt with the down side of working and living in Singapore. On the up side, your employer is required to do all legal paper work for your work pass, taxation and any other details required by the government. The down side here is that you may be harassed by your employer (if you should decide that the job or your employer is not to your taste) for the immediate return of your work pass. Both your passport and the work pass are required by the Ministry of Manpower (MoM) upon the surrender of your work pass. You may get a two week visitor visa stamped in your passport at MoM which is the reason why YOU should go yourself. You may or may not get an extension of this visa from the Singapore Department of Immigration. Each case is weighed on its merit! Whether you trust your employer with your passport is up to you! There are some legal considerations here for you to ponder! The Ministry of Manpower is best to answer your questions.

There are many other negatives for teachers in Singapore and if your desire is to save money, then be smart and go to another country where you are given your airfare, free accommodation, possibly some free meals, possibly paid utilities and other benefits where you can save money and live a good life style.

A salary for a Native Speaking Teacher in Singapore should be around S$3.5k minimum to S$4k or above pm. If you are not offered this salary then be wise and do not think about working in Singapore. The grass is greener in other countries!

You should now be able to see that foreigners are locked in to an insecure environment which causes stress levels to rise.

Should any person desire further information or have any questions on working or living in Singapore, then post a reply and I will get back to you when I can.

Caveat emptor! Let the buyer beware!

Forewarned is forearmed!

[Pinchy]

An excellent post sheepshead! I've been teaching in Singapore for a couple of years and pretty much agree with everything you say.

[k1w1]

I would like to add that medical costs are a nightmare-waiting-to-happen for an English teacher here. It costs about $12-15 to see a local doctor (who all speak English, and are very well-trained etc. There is really no need to pay $100+ to see the expat doctors here...), but if you are ever in need of emergency treatment, things can get very nasty...

I had to take my youngest child to the hospital when we had been in Singapore for a month. At the reception desk, (before telling them her symptoms), I was told: That's $85- thank you.
Me: Sorry? I haven't seen a doctor yet!
Receptionist: Yes, and if you want to, it'll be $85- thank you.

Okay, so for anyone from a country where you pay for health care, that might not be a big deal, but I was shocked. This was a public hospital, by the way, not a private place.

A broken bone, appendectomy or a week in hospital could be financial ruin for a teacher here. My advice: get medical insurance. If the company says you have coverage, get the paperwork to prove it. (Oh yes, we've been there...)

[sheepshead]

k1w1

Many thanks for your input. I had forgotten about this side of living in Singapore. Medical bills can be tough on the wallet. Just another down side to living in Singapore.

[wailing_imam]

Sheepshead has made a few errors regarding life in Singapore. I myself live in an HDB flat. All the rooms are open for my use. Many of my colleagues also live in HDB flats. All the rooms are open there too. Only a tosser would move into a flat which has a locked room. I pay $750 per month for the flat, which has two decent sized bedrooms and a utility room at the back. The flat was fully furnished when we moved in. Yes, you do need to pay a month's deposit, but in my experience, you get that back. Regarding the agent's fee, a month is astronomical! My chatty agent wanted a fortnight's worth, but hey this is Asia...BARGAIN HARD and the agent will drop the fee down considerably (REMEMBER: The flat owner is also paying the agent money).

I earn a little under the amount recommended by Sheepshead and am able to save between 800 - 1000SGD a month. I travel quite often to Indonesia and Malaysia at weekends. I smoke and eat well. I think one will find it is the booze that drains salaries in Singapore.

I have taught in 4 countries and while Singapore isn't the best paying place, it has offers a lifestyle unrivalled in Asia; it is beautiful, it is clean, it has beautiful women, it is warm, it is cheap and it offers a life agreeable to most westerners.

I think Sheepshead needs to cheer up. Most people have a fantastic time in Singapore. You will work hard but the scope for play is ample enough to compensate for this.

[sheepshead]

If you are in fact Caucasian your personal statements maybe correct. However, you may be visited one day by an official who will want to ask questions about the owner. I hope for your sake, Singapore�s rules have been changed.

Singapore is indeed as you described it, but, it is also run by an authoritarian Government.

My experience whilst living in Singapore was as I stated with several other posts backing me up. You picked on me and as I have said there are three other entries on the thread.

The person whom I worked for indirectly was no idiot and was a well educated person with a PhD to his credit who also stated the rules of renting HDB flats to be fact in late �04. So too did my direct employer and the real estate agents to whom I spoke. Singaporeans may indeed be regarded as �Rogue Chinese� in some Political Circles, but even Singaporean business people strive not to place their necks in the noose at Changi Prison or face an extremely heavy fine.

You may well get your deposit back only if you have replaced broken electrical switches, serviced the air conditioner at regular intervals as stated in your contract irrespective of whether or not you use it, replaced those things valued at a sum under a stated amount as per the contract as set out by the Singaporean Government on renting premises. Your land lord / land lady will find a way to rip you off when you leave.

Plus you will no doubt face the cost of laundering the curtains / drapes when you leave. Yes, I have these experiences to speak of with authority.

I have been off Singapore for only 6 weeks and it is unlikely that the laws have changed in that short time. Enjoy your situation before the powers that be come for a visit as they seem to come around unannounced at all hours of the day. Singapore�s news paper often run stories on visits paid to miscreants (?) by the authorities at all hours of the day including night.

As a point of interest I once heard a very wise man say that �sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.� Read your comment and see where you were sarcastic.

Enjoy working in Singapore and I hope your employer pays you well. (No sarcasm intended!)

Sheepshead.

[wailing_imam]

Laundering curtains? Broken switches? Are you insane? Not all Singaporeans are money grabbing wretches.

I work for one of the biggest PEOs in Singapore. 90% of the students come from China and live in HDB flats in a situation like I described. There are many landlords who are more than happy to fling open the doors in the flats to pack the students in. Speak to your students. Singapore is not quite the sqeaky clean law abiding nightmare you speak of. Many Singaporeans are more than happy to bend the rules a little, I think a quick flick through the paper will show you that.

[sheepshead]

I have no idea of how long you have been in Singapore but your mail tells me that you are very inexperienced in the ways of the (yes) money grubbers!

My personal experience is as I described. I stayed in an apartment for 14 months and I was charged for the laundering of the curtains, I had to replace one light switch and also pay for a malfunction of one very old A/C unit. I was leaving Singapore the next day and therefore I had little redress and especially as the Agent who placed me in that apartment showed me in black and white the relative laws Re: Rent of accommodation.

If you were to do your homework on the laws pertaining to the renting of apartments etc on Singapore you may be in for a very rude shock!

I speak from my own experience. Your experience may indeed be different irrespective of whether you are or are not new or old to Singapore, or in your inexperienced youth or maybe even mature aged.

However, these threads are read by authorities in Singapore so please do not write as if you are an authority on this subject. You may be visited one day and you will have to explain the ins and outs of your situation. I wish you all the best when you are called to do this explanation.

In reply to your insulting language, No! I am not insane! I research every thing that affects me and then search for laws in black and white to either prove or disprove what I have researched.

All the best,

Sheepshead.

[Tiger Beer]

For the people who don't live in Singapore and reading this post about things in Singapore dollars..

here is the current exchange rate:

1.00 SGD Singapore Dollars = 0.626635 USD United States Dollars

[Stephen Jones]

May I enquire as to why waling-imam and sheepshead don't launder their curtains a couple of times every year anyway?

[sheepshead]

Stephen,

Who says that I did not launder the curtains whilst living in the apartment? I can not answer for any other person however I laundered the curtains at 6 months intervals in the provided washing machine. As a tenant even if the curtains were laundered in the washing machine a week or two prior to leaving the premises, the land lady / land lord is still with in their legal rights to demand further laundering of the curtains. Law is Law!

Singapore as a nation has its own set of laws to govern every thing on that island. That is the beauty of an Authoritarian Government.

The dictum (law) of the government is that you, as a tenant, are required to pay the cost of laundering of curtains by a �professional� organisation when you leave. The land lady / lord is obligated by law to have the curtains laundered by such as it then gives the land lady / lord the right to take (withhold) the money from your deposit for payment of laundering.

This just one of the down sides of living on Singapore!

Please feel free to ask as many questions as you like about living on Singapore and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

[wabbit]

daily travel definitely do not cost more than 80 bucks unless you are taking cabs from one end to the other end.

buy a mrt card or take the bus. much lesser...less than 10 bucks a day.

anyone else who needs information can PM me. i am a school teacher with the MOE and able to give you more tips.

[sheepshead]

Wabbit,

My original text is as follows Re: Travel expenses. "Daily travel may cost you up to S$80 or more per month to go to and from work." The operative words are "per month."

Since there are at least 30 days in a month that is about $S2.50 or more per day. Not much I grant, but it all ads up in a monthly ballance sheet.


If indeed you do work for the MOE I pray that you do not teach my GRANDCHILDREN!

Sheepshead.

[wabbit]

geese, that was just a boo i made in reading your post too quickly , i offer my apologies on that

however , i am surprised you have to take such an offense and personally some more. " I hope you do not teach my GRANDCHILDREN" . sigh...can we be adults and NOT pick a bone of contention overhere?

[sheepshead]

wabbit,

If you made a "boo" by not reading my original text to the end and understanding it, how many other boos have you made in your life? My brotherly advice to you is to always read text once and then re-read a text two more times just to make sure that you understand the message.

I also stand by my saying that I hope that you never teach my "Grandchildren." You may p.m. me if you want a full explanation why.