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On concerns that flexi-work would result in more jobs offshoring, the Minister of State for Manpower said it was more important to make sure Singapore's workers stay globally competitive in skills and productivity. SINGAPORE: Employers with workers on flexible work arrangements have no basis to cut their pay if their productivity is not affected, Minister of State for Manpower Gan Siow Huang said on Tuesday (May 7). She was responding to a question by Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Raj Thomas on how the tripartite guidelines on flexible work arrangement requests would interact with the progressive wage model. The new guidelines, which come into effect on Dec 1, require all employers to have a process for their employees to request flexible work arrangements. Employers must give fair consideration to the requests and respond within two months. They can reject a request on "reasonable business grounds", and must give the employee the reason in writing. The progressive wage model provides a structure for wages to rise along with training and productivity improvements. It covers lower-wage local workers in certain sectors, like cleaning and security. Mr Thomas asked whether an employer would have to reject a worker's request for flexible work arrangements if it meant the worker would work fewer days, bringing his or her gross wage below the prescribed floor of the model. Ms Gan questioned the assumption that pay would be reduced in the first place, saying that employers have to pay competitively to attract and retain good workers. "For workers who are on flexible work arrangements, if their work output, productivity is not affected, actually there is no basis for employers to reduce their pay," she said. Manpower Minister Tan See Leng said that "the spirit of the PWM (progressive wage model) should really lead the entire thinking" behind the implementation of any guidelines. He said the guidelines on flexible work arrangements were based on tripartism and collaboration, and represented a "very nuanced approach". "I think we are moving into newer waters, and I would seek an appeal to the understanding, the support and also the patience of all of us together as one united society, to come together to make this work for the betterment of all of our future generations of workers." Dr Wan Rizal (PAP-Jalan Besar) raised concerns from workers who may want flexible work arrangements but fear if their personal issues, like mental health, are aired in the process, that this could hurt their career progression. Ms Gan reiterated that employers must assess employees' performance and pay them fairly based on work done, and not discriminate based on health conditions that do not affect their performance. After the guidelines were announced, some employers told CNA that as managing remote teams becomes more common, they may rethink hiring local staff and look overseas for recruitment, particularly given the difference in costs. Members of the tripartite working group that drafted the guidelines, co-chaired by Ms Gan, have said that ensuring the local workforce stays competitive will be key as Singapore normalises flexible work arrangements. On Tuesday, Ms Gan reiterated that remote work and outsourcing are already global trends regardless of Singapore's guidelines. "Even if foreigners are not working in Singapore ... they will still be competing with us when working in companies overseas," she said. It was more important for local workers to continually upskill and stay productive to compete for jobs not just in Singapore, but globally, she added. MP Cheryl Chan (PAP-East Coast) then asked whether Singapore would see more offshoring of jobs as a result of the flexible work arrangement guidelines. She also asked whether middle-aged professionals, managers, executives and technicians (PMETs) would be disadvantaged by the guidelines and by the redesign of job roles to accommodate flexible work arrangements. Ms Gan replied that flexible work arrangements were not limited to flexi-place arrangements (like working from home), and did not mean workers will be less productive. She added that businesses were driven by their own bottom lines in assessing talent and costs. "I think we should not pretend that without flexible work arrangements, there'll be less offshoring," she said. "I would also point out that elsewhere, in the US, for example, we are also seeing some tech companies putting out statements that remote work does not work for them. "There seems to be some suggestion that actually, for certain sectors and for certain types of work, physical on-site presence, teamwork, all these are still very key." She said that some companies in Singapore have shared similar feedback, adding: "For those, I think offshoring may not be a natural choice, and certainly would not be affected by these guidelines." Ms Gan said that the focus for middle-aged PMETs is on making sure they have the right skills and on their "career health" to make sure they stay employable. Addressing MPs' questions, she also reiterated that the guidelines do not mandate flexible work arrangements or set hard targets. "For flexible work arrangements to be successful, it must make businesses sustainable for the employers," she said. "It does not make sense to require businesses to offer flexible work arrangements, even when it negatively impacts business and affects employment prospects for Singaporeans."

https://www.reuters.com/technology/microsoft-cut-thousands-jobs-sky-news-2023-01-17/ Jan 17 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) plans to cut thousands of jobs with some roles expected to be eliminated in human resources and engineering divisions, according to media reports on Tuesday. The expected layoffs would be the latest in the U.S. technology sector, where companies including Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) and Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook. Microsoft's move could indicate that the tech sector may continue to shed jobs. "From a big picture perspective, another pending round of layoffs at Microsoft suggests the environment is not improving, and likely continues to worsen," Morningstar analyst Dan Romanoff said. U.K broadcaster Sky News reported, citing sources, that Microsoft plans to cut about 5% of its workforce, or about 11,000 roles. The company plans to cut jobs in a number of engineering divisions on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported, according to a person familiar with the matter, while Insider reported that Microsoft could cut recruiting staff by as much as one-third. The cuts will be significantly larger than other rounds in the past year, the Bloomberg report said. Microsoft declined to comment on the reports. The company had 221,000 full-time employees, including 122,000 in the United States and 99,000 internationally, as of June 30, according to filings. Microsoft is under pressure to maintain growth rates at its cloud unit Azure, after several quarters of downturn in the personal computer market hurt Windows and devices sales. It had said in July last year that a small number of roles had been eliminated. In October, news site Axios reported that Microsoft had laid off under 1,000 employees across several divisions. Shares of Microsoft, which is set to report quarterly results on Jan. 24, were marginally higher in late afternoon trading.

Really dunno what is happening to our edu system. this is pre 377A approval era summore.. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/cca-coach-molested-13-students-over-more-2-years-school-lab-chalet-3028071

Especially at highway near the chevron marking. Is it illegal?

Here's another case of Singaporean drivers not being gracious. For those who have been reading our blogs, this looks slightly similar to the other incident we posted last week where the camera car refuses to give way. Posted on SG Road Vigilante first, this BMW 5 Series could be seen cutting across the camera car's lane and also across the double white lines early in the video. Our first instinct was, "wow what a horrible move by the BMW". But later in the clip, you will notice that the BMW did signal his intention of going into the filtering lane at the end of Clementi Ave 6 going towards Bukit Batok. However, the camera car chose to not give way, probably triggering the BMW driver's temper. Not a cool move from the camera car we rekon. Would you have given way to the BMW if you were driving the camera car? Or you reckon the BMW is just being silly? Let us know!

Friends This is almost a medical emergency .... No barber for another six weeks!! The longest I've gone without a visit to the local Indian barber is about 4 weeks. Not that I've much left, but I like it need... So it's now an emergency... does anyone know how to do a decent haircut? I'll even go online and buy the gear... Very soon there will be underground barbers ... like the prohibition times...

Should we use anti septic on wounds? I had a fall last Friday and got abrasions on various places on my body, mainly on my left side. I had two big area of skin abrasion on my left shoulder and leg. Also my face which required stitching to minimize scarring. So I was about to change my dressing on my shoulder and leg, and wonder if I should apply antiseptic. Apparently there are different school of thought if the wound is clean . Found an interesting article that look into this controversy https://www.woundsresearch.com/article/1585 .

You might not have heard of his name till this moment, but for sure you have been using something he has created everyday... and to be frank, I have all these while thought that it was by Microsoft or Macintosh. Larry Tesler, creator of copy, cut and paste function, dies at 74 New York(CNN Business)Larry Tesler, a pioneer of personal computing credited with creating the cut, copy and paste as well as the search and replace functions, has died. He was 74. Tesler was not nearly as well known as computing giants such as Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. But he played an early, central role in making computers accessible to people without computer engineering degrees, i.e. most of us. Xerox (XRX), the company for whom he developed the functions, tweeted out news of his death. "Your workday is easier thanks to his revolutionary ideas," the company's tweet said. Cut, copy and paste and search and replace functions are used millions of times a day without users thinking twice about how they were developed or by whom. But before Tesler's work, computer users had to interact with clunky programs in different "modes," where the same commands meant different things depending on how they were used. Even an expert like Tesler found that to be a problem. "Most interactive programs had modes, which always tripped me up," he wrote in a 2012 paper about the development of copy, cut and paste. Tesler became a champion of eliminating modes from computer programs. His personal web site was nomodes.com. The elimination of modes opened the door to how computer users have interacted with personal computers for the last 40 years. Much of that work was done not at one of today's tech giants, but at a computer lab at Xerox. Today most people know Xerox only as a maker of copiers, but in its heyday the company developed much of the technology that led to the personal computer: the mouse, a graphical user interface that allowed for more than lines of text on a screen. The work was done at the company's Silicon Valley-based Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, or Xerox PARC. Tesler was at the center of those efforts, and is credited with coining the terms "friendly user interface" and "browser" during his time at Xerox. When Jobs visited Xerox PARC in 1979, he met with Tesler. "You're sitting on a gold mine!" Tesler later recalled Jobs telling him. "Why aren't you doing something with this technology? You could change the world!" Jobs was right: Xerox was not taking advantage of the pivotal research being done at Xerox Parc. So Apple (AAPL) to became the first to make broad use of the graphic user interface, as well as the mouse and other features. Tesler left Xerox for Apple in 1980, where he rose to the position of vice president and chief scientist. While there he helped to design the Macintosh computer, QuickTime and the Lisa computer, one of the first personal computers to use a graphical user interface. It was the Lisa that popularized the now-familiar copy, paste and undo shortcuts. (That's C to copy, V to paste and Z to undo). "I have been mistakenly identified as the 'father of the graphical user interface for the Macintosh,'" Tesler wrote on his website. "I was not. However, a paternity test might expose me as one of its many grandparents." Tesler stayed at Apple until in 1997. In 2001 he joined Amazon (AMZN), where he served as vice president of shopping experience. He then went to Yahoo (YAHOF) in 2005, where he was vice president of user experience and design. He was issued numerous patents while working at those firms. Until his death, Tesler served as a consultant to companies like Western Union (WU) and note-taking app Evernote on how to improve their user experience on desktop and mobile. He was dedicated to innovating, simplifying, improving. "As is my personality, if I ever hear somebody say something's impossible or extremely difficult, almost impossible, it's a challenge and I always try to do it," he said in an interview at Silicon Valley's Computer History Museum in 2013. One thing he never overcame -- his hatred of modes. He drove around California with the personalized license plate "NOMODES."

Nissan might be asking more than 10,000 employees to leave. This comes after the company projects its profit to fall further for 2019. As reported by Kyodo News, sources from the company told the new agency that the news of the job cuts will come when it releases its April-June earnings figures as nett profits hit a nine-year low going into March. Jobs which will be cut are expected to mostly come from factories in regions with low utilisation rates and through early retirement options. Nissan only planned to axe around 4,800 employees back in May but the numbers has grown by quite a bit since then. If the numbers turn out true, he move will see the company reducing its overall global workforce by around 7% The report also suggested that it may also streamline output in its domestic market as Nissan saw its global vehicle sales fall 4.4% to 5.52 million units in fiscal 2018. The company reckons things will be worse as sales is projected to be nearly halved for the 2019 financial year.