Nice article about what banks are doing in Singapore

[Wd40]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-2 ... -asia.html

Barclays had 3,500 full-time employees in Singapore in October 2013, according to a press release marking 40 years in the country. That was down from 4,700 about a year earlier, bank data from September 2012 show.

Credit Suisse is planning a phased exit from its One Raffles Quay office space in the downtown area this year, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be named, citing confidentiality. It’s also seeking replacement tenants at some of its leased office space in Changi, near the airport, the person said.

[maneo]

From the article:

"Singapore’s four-year campaign to restrict the hiring of foreigners increased competition for local workers and made it more expensive to recruit them -- dissuading banks from adding back-office staff, said Jones Lang LaSalle’s Chris Archibold.


Does this mean that the consequences of "the campaign" are having an effect opposite from what was intended (i.e. fewer jobs overall)?

[zzm9980]

Sure sounds like it. Who didn't see this coming?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Most of us? The gahment is notoriously short-sighted and it's what got 'em in trouble in the first place.

[Aragorn2000]

Businesses must have had complained to the gov long before they took these actions. Why didn't the gov do anything?

[BoroBoy]

I think it's a regional, if not global trend and although the tighter recruitment policies have undoubtedly had an affect its hard to quantify how much. Certainly it's not responsible for the whole figures. Barclays have chopped their workforce globally and if you compare Singapore to Japan in the past 8 years then Singapore is in a better state.

[JR8]

From the article:
"Singapore’s four-year campaign to restrict the hiring of foreigners increased competition for local workers and made it more expensive to recruit them -- dissuading banks from adding back-office staff, said Jones Lang LaSalle’s Chris Archibold.
Does this mean that the consequences of "the campaign" are having an effect opposite from what was intended (i.e. fewer jobs overall)?

I made my observations in the concurrent topic titled 'Xenophobia' - http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... highlight= , and I'll save repeating those points.

Do the government believe that foreign MNCs bring in overseas workers which cost them considerably more, because they have a choice?

I can only speak for banking + finance, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it is not exclusive to that industry.

In many MNC functions, it's not just about paper qualifications. Indeed when I was in Banking/Finance [b/f] a majority of people had no relevant qualifications. 'Skilled by experience' was term often used, and that included me, when the application went in for my 1st SGn visa.

What I have come to progressively realise, is that to succeed in b/f it is more about ruthless drive, being 'sharp', hard-working, and having an acuity to do the job whilst navigating all the other mega-egos, and politics, and political back-stabbing, that are part of a normal day.

You could liken it to an extension of a soft-skill. Most floor traders have little or no formal education, the fact they got hired and likely started young are way more relevant. One of the traders I worked with had dropped out of school and became a valet-parker at (IIRC) the Dorchester on Park Lane, London. Lovely guy, one of the minority where the required vanity and ego hadn't tipped him off the scale into becoming 'a challenge to deal with' [there really were many Primo-grade a**e-holes, but it went with, was almost a requirement of the job). He told me that at 18 he was parking 25+ supercars a day, and 'I decided I wanted to own some cars like that'. And by 25, he did, he had about five Ferrari's AFAIR.

I think SG is too secure to produce people with that kind of hunger. Rather, it is born out of necessity and being forced to make your own way. Life is just too cushy here for most, as near as matters a guaranteed home, job, and then pension.

So you have MNCs wishing to relocate here for regional presence, who are being forced into a ... 'sociological programme' that requires hiring people who still live with their mothers, and who can't do their own laundry.

---

What I am latterly also coming to realise is that now that I'm long out of the game, I am starting to ... dislike, the traits I once had to have and rely upon. I have ceased or almost ceased contact with 4-5 of my longest term friends. What they have in common is that they all still work in the industry and now as I'm kicking back and chilling as I mature, I find them pushy and superficial to the extent we increasingly have nothing in common.

Just leaf through a copy of the weekend FT magazine 'How to Spend it' for an A-Z guide of superficial tokenistic showy vulgarity. Observe for example: http://www.derek-rose.com/underwear/men ... hirts.html the £40 t-shirt, that a 'banker going places' must wear under his work-short these days. One of my ex-best-mates (indeed we were each others best-man) takes it to another level, and wears ones with matching jocks in '240-weave Egyptian cotton', or what-ever, that can only be bought in Switzerland. I can't but help remorselessly take the mickey... but it's very serious, it seems, and I'm no longer 'in it' and playing the game.

It all goes with the culture. Most get spat out by 25. Those left are the more ruthless bastards; they have to be to survive. By 35 or maybe even 40, if still there, they have the house, car, and blinged-up wife and lifestyle, and that they cannot conceive it being taken away. Their life and identity hinges upon it. But as there is no On/Off switch to the required mindset, they increasingly make lessor and lessor 'good friends'. Everything becomes a competition. Shall we meet for the first time in 3 months, and have a p*ssing contest over the weave-count of our underpants? lol....

Those are the kind of people at the heart of the MNC/Banking+Finance industry. Dress it up however you or they wish. Like it or not. Most local SGns will have at the least great difficulty fitting into that, not because they don't desire success, but because the almost maniacal arguably warped or eccentric drive and tenacity required to achieve it has been neutered by nation-wide 'progress', an acceptable 'don't stick your neck out' mediocrity, and security for life.

p.s. I can only speak of my experience in banking+finance, but it wouldn't surprise me if similar cultures existed in other industries. Having a nebulous authority demand that square pegs must be fitted into round holes won't change anything.

[maneo]

Businesses must have had complained to the gov long before they took these actions. Why didn't the gov do anything?

Don't we have elections coming in just a couple of years?
Aren't vocal voters the squeakier wheel?

What might make things interesting again might be continuing discontent from the resulting increase in cost of living.
If it's not one thing, it's another.

[ScoobyDoes]

Businesses must have had complained to the gov long before they took these actions. Why didn't the gov do anything?

Don't we have elections coming in just a couple of years?
Aren't vocal voters the squeakier wheel?

What might make things interesting again might be continuing discontent from the resulting increase in cost of living.
If it's not one thing, it's another.

And/Or an increased unemployment rate.

[Brah]

Thanks for posting the story, just more evidence that things are only getting worse, worse than they were last time we discussed this

[movingtospore]

From the article:
"Singapore’s four-year campaign to restrict the hiring of foreigners increased competition for local workers and made it more expensive to recruit them -- dissuading banks from adding back-office staff, said Jones Lang LaSalle’s Chris Archibold.
Does this mean that the consequences of "the campaign" are having an effect opposite from what was intended (i.e. fewer jobs overall)?

I made my observations in the concurrent topic titled 'Xenophobia' - http://forum.singaporeexpats.com/ftopic ... highlight= , and I'll save repeating those points.

Do the government believe that foreign MNCs bring in overseas workers which cost them considerably more, because they have a choice?

I can only speak for banking + finance, but I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it is not exclusive to that industry.

In many MNC functions, it's not just about paper qualifications. Indeed when I was in Banking/Finance [b/f] a majority of people had no relevant qualifications. 'Skilled by experience' was term often used, and that included me, when the application went in for my 1st SGn visa.

What I have come to progressively realise, is that to succeed in b/f it is more about ruthless drive, being 'sharp', hard-working, and having an acuity to do the job whilst navigating all the other mega-egos, and politics, and political back-stabbing, that are part of a normal day.

You could liken it to an extension of a soft-skill. Most floor traders have little or no formal education, the fact they got hired and likely started young are way more relevant. One of the traders I worked with had dropped out of school and became a valet-parker at (IIRC) the Dorchester on Park Lane, London. Lovely guy, one of the minority where the required vanity and ego hadn't tipped him off the scale into becoming 'a challenge to deal with' [there really were many Primo-grade a**e-holes, but it went with, was almost a requirement of the job). He told me that at 18 he was parking 25+ supercars a day, and 'I decided I wanted to own some cars like that'. And by 25, he did, he had about five Ferrari's AFAIR.

I think SG is too secure to produce people with that kind of hunger. Rather, it is born out of necessity and being forced to make your own way. Life is just too cushy here for most, as near as matters a guaranteed home, job, and then pension.

So you have MNCs wishing to relocate here for regional presence, who are being forced into a ... 'sociological programme' that requires hiring people who still live with their mothers, and who can't do their own laundry.

---

What I am latterly also coming to realise is that now that I'm long out of the game, I am starting to ... dislike, the traits I once had to have and rely upon. I have ceased or almost ceased contact with 4-5 of my longest term friends. What they have in common is that they all still work in the industry and now as I'm kicking back and chilling as I mature, I find them pushy and superficial to the extent we increasingly have nothing in common.

Just leaf through a copy of the weekend FT magazine 'How to Spend it' for an A-Z guide of superficial tokenistic showy vulgarity. Observe for example: http://www.derek-rose.com/underwear/men ... hirts.html the £40 t-shirt, that a 'banker going places' must wear under his work-short these days. One of my ex-best-mates (indeed we were each others best-man) takes it to another level, and wears ones with matching jocks in '240-weave Egyptian cotton', or what-ever, that can only be bought in Switzerland. I can't but help remorselessly take the mickey... but it's very serious, it seems, and I'm no longer 'in it' and playing the game.

It all goes with the culture. Most get spat out by 25. Those left are the more ruthless bastards; they have to be to survive. By 35 or maybe even 40, if still there, they have the house, car, and blinged-up wife and lifestyle, and that they cannot conceive it being taken away. Their life and identity hinges upon it. But as there is no On/Off switch to the required mindset, they increasingly make lessor and lessor 'good friends'. Everything becomes a competition. Shall we meet for the first time in 3 months, and have a p*ssing contest over the weave-count of our underpants? lol....

Those are the kind of people at the heart of the MNC/Banking+Finance industry. Dress it up however you or they wish. Like it or not. Most local SGns will have at the least great difficulty fitting into that, not because they don't desire success, but because the almost maniacal arguably warped or eccentric drive and tenacity required to achieve it has been neutered by nation-wide 'progress', an acceptable 'don't stick your neck out' mediocrity, and security for life.

p.s. I can only speak of my experience in banking+finance, but it wouldn't surprise me if similar cultures existed in other industries. Having a nebulous authority demand that square pegs must be fitted into round holes won't change anything.

You said it JR8. Couldn't agree more.

[JR8]

The cartoonist Bateman* was well known for his long-running series 'The man who...' featuring class-based social gaffes.

The more trivial and yet accurate the 'social infraction' the better fodder for his pen. I thought the above could be titled, 'The man who told his banking colleagues he's perfectly fine wearing a £3.99 M+S vest'


Another of his that I recall, that's deliciously accurate is a group scene of a country shooting-party. Everyone's dressed up in the mandatory tweed, cords and Barbours and so on, except one man who is younger and 'dressed urban'. The title is something like 'The man who attended the Duke's pheasant shoot, and brought a pump-action shotgun'. The horror!! The parallel point being that 'down-to-earth' country people can be juuuust as snobby as other more urban types.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._M._Bateman
'H. M. Bateman was noted for his "The Man Who..." series of cartoons, featuring comically exaggerated reactions to minor and usually upper-class social gaffes, such as "The Man Who Lit His Cigar Before the Royal Toast", "The Man Who Threw a Snowball at St. Moritz" and "The Boy Who Breathed on the Glass at the British Museum."'