Coming up is another story of why you shouldn’t be sharing stuff on social media unless you want it to backfire on your ass. Recently, there was this post about this lady who complained that the Singapore Police Force didn’t take her contributions to the job seriously enough. She ranted that she faced discrimination just because she was a woman who took frequent maternity leave and was graded unfairly for her performance review due to that.
This was the post in question, uploaded by Facebook user Reema Razif.
Now here are the important parts to take away from this wall of text.
- Woman has 4 kids one after another (since she says they’re all under 5)
- Worked for SPF for 11 years total.
- Had no issues with the organization during the time she wasn’t pregnant or on Maternity Leave.
- Complains about not getting a farewell card on her last day.
Up to speed?
Great, let’s move on.
As you’d expect from a sob story like that, some sympathetic people jumped in headlong to post support for the woman.
They certainly make some convincing arguments, no doubts there. Then again, they’ve already made up their minds in supporting the woman.
Other soon chimed in too, with their opinions on Singapore’s civil service institutions as a whole.
I’m not sure whether all (some of them claim they have) of them have worked in the public sector previously before or not, but there’s a whole swath of Netizens who have a very negative impression of public service.
Most view civil servants as self-serving and only out for themselves. Bootlicking, backstabbing and office politicking being the norm in all the civil service sectors.
Personally, my experience in the public sector (I was assigned to one of the country’s civil service HQs during my NS) does bear some of what they say out. There are people in the service that are bootlickers, backstabbers but on the flipside, there are also some very good people who do great work there.
In that regard, the civil service is pretty much like every company out there, whether it’s the public or private sector…though I guess it’s fun to jump on the ‘Bash the Government and its ministries’ bandwagon.
Of course, the SPF’s got to have a response for this. Keeping quiet would just add fuel to the fire.
Here’s the response from the Singapore Police Force’s Facebook page.
Uh-huh.
Speaking frankly, it seems to be a bit too generic and impersonal.
I understand what the SPF was aiming for, but a more human type of response (instead of one that’s been massaged by PR speak) would’ve been much better and humanizing for them.
Netizens feel the same way too.
They too do agree that the statement put forth by the Singapore Police Force could’ve been worded better.
However, despite the cookie cutter response from the SPF, online sentiment has largely been negative…against the woman complaining.
Here are two of the best posts I see describing the situation.
The ones that have to truly bear the brunt of the woman’s repeated absences and reduced workload are her co-workers. Like it or not, they had to do her share of the work while she was off on leave. For the same pay no less.
Netizens view them as the unsung heroes in this case.
While many acknowledge that the civil service could certainly do more to help women, in this case the sentiment is that the woman was self-entitled in complaining about the things she did.
It’s an overwhelmingly negative sentiment too as I’ve not seen so many Netizens united against something ever since the Raeesah Khan lying in parliament incident.
Men and women alike both blasted the woman.
It’s not a pretty sight.
Many, many Netizens called out the woman’s self-serving behaviour. According to them, everything she complained about, she brought upon herself.
Nobody forced her to get pregnant, even more so repeatedly in such a short time. Many even say that if they were in her co-worker’s shoes they’d look upon her quitting with relief and glee instead of loss. She wanted to know why she didn’t get a farewell card? That’s the reason why.
Hell, some were even of the impression she gamed the system, as she still got paid and had multiple breaks while still on the payroll. It’s having her cake and eating in and then complaining there’s not enough cake after.
One even pointed out that she’s not the only mother in the service…but the only one taking to social media to make noise.
I don’t know if that’s true or not (maybe other mothers are making noise too), but perhaps this case will encourage more who feel similarly to speak up in the future.
Of course, where would a post talking about discrimination be if somebody didn’t jump in and try to hijack it for their own agenda?
The would-be philosopher mulls on how we all can eliminate discrimination…while contributing exactly nothing to a topic that is about alleged discrimination.
See the irony there?
Whether there is really discrimination at work or not, in this case the masses have spoken. It’s the woman who’s at fault, not the SPF.