Mailbag

Face up to harsh realities

I refer to the article Millennials At Work (Life, May 1).

The companies sampled in the report are entrepreneur-led startups and have fun and informal office environments.

It is fair to say their employees are still greenhorns in the corporate world and it would do them and other millennials well to be mindful of the harsh realities beyond the walls of these companies.

Their unstructured or unconventional human resource policies offer little protection to staff in the event of employment disputes.

Such atmosphere does not prepare young workers for the hierachy, bureaucracy and politics which are found in most organisations, big or small.

Ooi Mun Kong


NO PLACE FOR AGEISM

I am troubled by the ageist views espoused by the founders of Love, Bonito.

Their justification for hiring only people close to their age are flimsy and indefensible (Being On Social Media Is Part Of Job Scope, Life, May 1.)

According to Ms Viola Tan and Ms Rachel Lim, they choose to hire people of their age because "that is the demographic" of their customers.

The logical conclusion to this would be that a Love, Bonito employee should quit when he is no longer in the demographic range of the customers, regardless of how attuned he is to their needs.

They also made a sweeping generalisation that tech-savvy workers tend to be young. This does injustice to technologically sophisticated older workers. Hiring practices based on stereotypes should have no place in Singapore.

Millennials rightly expect to be rewarded based on the value they bring to the organisation. They should extend the same courtesy to others.

Loke Zhi Wei Mark

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on May 07, 2016, with the headline Face up to harsh realities. Subscribe