In case you missed it, here’s the hottest story online this week.
An employer in Singapore took to Facebook on Sep 15 to share that he had offered a young woman an internship opportunity, only to rescind it after she made a request to meet online instead of the agreed face-to-interview.
Here’s the screenshot of the exchange.
Cue a torrent of split opinions from netizens: some supported his move while others criticised him.
The employer later followed up with another Facebook post on Sep 18, explaining why he did what he did.
Long story short, the applicant reached out to him for an internship opportunity three months ago but ghosted him and then resurfaced again asking for the opportunity after one day saying that “the internship company is having some legal issues and she finds the culture toxic and is not for her”.
Minimising expectation mismatch
Commenting on this issue, labour MP Patrick Tay (Pioneer SMC), who is also Assistant Secretary General of NTUC, told Petir.sg that Singapore needs to minimise the mismatch between employers and employees now that workplaces are transforming.
“Workplaces are now transforming. I think we need to minimise this expectation mismatch, as well as the expectation gap. I think more importantly it’s to see how employers as well as hirers are able to better adjust and to meet the needs of the new workforce.”
That said, employees should also do their homework.
“At the same time, job seekers and entrants should also suss out employers and see what do they really need. And what do they expect, so that we mean minimise this mismatch of employers and employees.”
With workplace transformation accelerated by Covid, one big challenge, according to Mr Tay, is the concept of intergenerational expectations and gaps.
“I think one big challenge will be this concept of intergenerational expectations and gaps. I think that with a greater demand for work flexibility, hybrid work arrangements and our various work from home arrangements, many workers are starting to question whether can we have more flexibility and can we do things a bit differently?” he said.