#trending: 'Increasingly hard to find motivated young people to work' comment by entrepreneur Tjin Lee stirs up netizens
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SINGAPORE â Public relations firm founder Tjin Lee has drawn flak online after expressing concerns about an increasing number of young Singaporeans who seem to be unmotivated to work hard.Â
In a Instagram post dated last Sunday (July 3), the 48-year-old entrepreneur mused that there is a âworryingâ trend of people expressing on social media that they would ârather be on holiday than in the officeâ or that they just want to âlie on a bed of moss with my lover and read art and poetry, and not hustle nor work hardâ.
Ms Lee, who is the founder and managing director of Mercury Marketing & Communications, lamented that it is âincreasingly hard to find motivated young people to workâ.
She shared her encounters with Singaporeans in their 20s who had asked about âwork-life balanceâ and âflexi working optionsâ as the first question during their job interviews.
She added in a subsequent comment that while she is not against work-life balance or flexible working arrangements, these should not be the things that interviewees ask.
Ms Lee then ends her post by referring to Singaporeâs lack of natural resources and land scarcity to support her message â âour dreams donât work unless we doâ.
The online community did not take kindly to her comments, with some claiming that her thoughts are âold-fashionedâ and âboomerâ.Â
The post, which has received 1,416 likes and 227 comments, has generated quite a discussion.
Ms Lee said that even though she does not delete comments from people who disagree with her, she has had to delete comments that were âtoxic, personal attacksâ and block âthose accounts and the accounts of those who liked these toxic commentsâ.
In response to her post, someone suggested she should update her âperspectives on hiring practicesâ in line with the attitudes of Gen Zers and millennials who are now joining and part of the workforce, with many echoing that sentiment.Â
In an âeat the richâ moment, another person compared Ms Lee to American billionaire socialite Kim Kardashian, who had infamously said that âit seems like nobody wants to work these daysâ in an interview with Variety magazine.Â
The person noted that Kardashian did not acknowledge âher privilege from growing up in a wealthy well-connected familyâ, seemingly drawing parallels to Ms Lee.
Not everyone disagreed with Ms Lee, however, as several commenters showed their support for her post.
Former actress Jacelyn Tay commented: "Well said đ", while former radio deejay Maddy Barber stated that Ms Lee "couldnât have said it better! đ".
The Singaporean socialite, who has 44,700 followers on Instagram as of Thursday (July 7), is a prominent voice in the entrepreneurship scene in Singapore.Â
In a CNA Luxury interview, the socialite said that she usually spends âhalf-an-hour to an hour each day supporting relevant local brands in the form of pro bono Instagram storiesâ.
WANTING WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND MORE
In an Instagram post, financial blog âthewokesalarymanâ posted a comic on Tuesday detailing their thoughts on âwhat some business owners still donât get about hiring and keeping millennialsâ.Â
In the post, âthewokesalarymanâ pointed to âdepressing salariesâ and âbad working environmentâ as possible reasons for the âdisloyalâ millennial job-hopping trend.
Online users appeared to be in agreement with the post by "thewokesalaryman", with one noting that most people would prefer not to go through the rigorous process of finding a new job, if their âcurrent company is good enough to stayâ.
One asked: âCan you CC my ex HR director on this?â
Another said: âSomeone should show this to Tjin Lee.âÂ
Separately, online users responded to a survey by AsiaOne website on the âAttitudes towards work-life balanceâ, which found that 46.3 per cent of the 1,187 respondents in Singapore were "dissatisfied" with their work-life balance and 32.5 per cent were "satisfied".
Most of the online users agreed on the need for work-life balance, with one on online forum Reddit saying on the r/singapore subreddit: âWhat kind of life am I living if I can't even find the time for my personal interests (and am) worried to even take days off.â
This is not the first time that Ms Lee has dealt with negative public comments.
Life Beyond Grades, an initiative founded by her with four other parents in 2018, drew some criticism because its message â that there were alternative pathways to success besides scoring well academically â rang hollow for low social economic status students who were unable to afford to score badly.Â
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Wenxin, L. (2022, July 8). #trending: âIncreasingly hard to find motivated young people to workâ comment by entrepreneur Tjin Lee stirs up netizens. TODAY. https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/trending-tjin-lee-millennials-worklife-balance-1938576