The Straits Times, 6 April 2015
The writer states that nowadays more people in their 20s take up cleaning jobs, mainly to earn more money. They are attracted to the high pay, at $16 per hour. That is almost double the wages of service jobs at food and beverage outlets.
One student who took up this job, said that when home owners hire cleaners, they usually expect a woman in her 40s or 50s. This shows that people stereotyped cleaners. We should perhaps, be more open-minded, and not make generalizations based on what we see most often. Yes, indeed most cleaners are women in their 40s or 50s, but this does not mean that cleaners have to be women. Men are as equally capable in cleaning as women too. This also does not mean that only the older people will have experience and clean houses better; younger people may be just as good.
These freelance cleaners feel that those interested in taking up this job must be prepared to face difficulties. To us, this is more important than the age of employees. If the employee is older but able to handle the workload, there should be no reason why employers would not employ him or her. Employers should not be biased to people just because of their age. If all employers were prejudiced, people might not get the jobs and opportunities that they rightfully deserve.
Thus, we feel that people should be more impartial so that they do not restrict people to their personal preferences and deny them of their chances.
Yong Chuen Shin and Andrea Lim
There exists ageism in society, not least in Singapore. I concede that some jobs may require more physical strength because of the nature of the job. However, with re-design of jobs, equipment could be used to allow the elderly to be hired.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the office environment, are there also biased practices found in hiring and promotion of employees?