Category Archives: Singapore

Work from home a reality?

The COVID 19 had proven that work from home (WFH) can be a reality for many companies in Singapore or globally. This is going to challenge the management to change the way we work. But are the company ready for this CHANGE?

The company has setup the available resources to ensure that employees can work from home effectively. One of the critical resources is to have the company data available on cloud services. Many companies in Singapore had subscribed to Google services by storing their data on My Drive. But there are company who are sceptical on the security of their data.

In fact, during this WFH we need to pay our own utility in order to support our work activity. This means that we will not be able to recoup this cost from the company even though this cost is minimum.

The company also need to pay for teleconference account in order to ensure workers can meet virtually. This is only required for those meetings that will run more than 40 minutes or above. For meeting, less than 40 minutes it is generally free for all users. Hence, this is easily solve for WFH workers.

Like I say not all companies are ready. Healthcare sector is one of them where data are stored on their own cloud network instead of third party service providers. These workers will not have access to the intranet data when they are working at home. Thus, it is more difficult for them to work effectively. They will need to synchronised their data when they are back at work.

Changi Airport Solari Board

The Singapore Changi Airport Solari Board or split flap display is something that I enjoy watching since I was a child. It was so great to see the display flip and display the correct character and number. It had age over the years and have to give way as the technology advance.

I will always remember it as a memory lane as it had been operating for more than 20 years.

Cicuit Breaker Day 15

The number of infected patients had maintain at above 1,000 cases for the past 2 days. This had trigger the task force and the SIngapore Prime Minister to take on drastic measures.

The Circuit Breaker had been extended to 01 Jun (inclusive). This include more drastic measure and tightening of essential services.

The circuit breaker had been further extended to 01 Jun (inclusive) and going to affect the livihood of more people with more business going to close down. This is really a historic moment that we always remember in our life.

Circuit breaker day 11

The trains had increased their frequency during the peak hours which is a bad move. This represent how the government and train companies senior management are out of the touch with the grounds. The increase of frequency should only be after peak hours where the passenger traffic are thin. This lead to the breaking of the safe distancing on the train today. Prior to today, safe distancing can be maintain on trains during peak hours.

Circuit breaker Day 05

Our hospital like others were not designed to handle major pandemic like COVID 19. This will be posed for a design change after this pandemic end. In Singapore, we made use of every gross floor area (GFA) that we have in the building. Can we really have the extra empty space available for pandemic during peace time? It might be possible now that we undergoes this pandemic.

We were more prepare after SARS with more public hospitals and better facilities. But we were still overwhelm as the infection rate is faster than the design capacity. Facilities Management (FM) move very fast to provide innovative ideas to meet the requirements. We have build rapport with our regular vendors over the past years and they are ready to assist us to provide feasible solutions accordingly to our requirements.

During the public holidays and weekends, we continue to offer our support from home as required. If needed, we will also go back to the hospital site. Commitment and team work are very important during emergency crisis like this.

The streets and neighbourhood were more quiet as more people listen to the government advisory to curb the spread.

Empty Street
Kampung Admiralty

Please stay at home and wear a mask when you need to go out.

ICU Refresher course for covid 19

Ground-up initiative to rapidly train healthcare workers with minimal ICU experience to assist ICU-trained teams in this COVID19 pandemic situation. This should not replace formal training.

Project Equip is a Critical Care Refresher Course developed by SGH Department of Respiratory and Critical Medicine with support from the Departments of Renal Medicine and Anaesthesiology.

Extract from SGH on LinkedIn

It is great for healthcare Engineers to know what are colleagues are going through in the ICU.

COVID 19 Battle links

The consolidated links for Singapore battle against the COVID 19.

CONSOLIDATED LINKS FOR COVID19 BATTLE

?Gov.sg Whatsapp Subscription
Local: go.gov.sg/whatsapp
Overseas: go.gov.sg/whatsapp-overseas

? To find a PHPC clinic
www.phpc.gov.sg

? To find where to collect mask
www.maskgowhere.gov.sg

? Covid19 online symptom checker
www.sgcovidcheck.com

⚠ If you are feeling chest pain/breathless/gasping for air, or any other emergency concerns, pls call 995 immediately! Don’t bother to check online by symptoms.

? TraceTogether for Mobile
www.tracetogether.gov.sg

? SG United Jobs Portal
www.sgunitedjobs.gov.sg

?To check how crowded malls are before going
www.spaceout.gov.sg

?To check how crowded parks are before going
safedistparks.nparks.gov.sg

⚠Stay home as much as you can, minimise going out to malls or parks unnecessarily

? Businesses to apply exemption for circuit breaker period
covid.gobusiness.gov.sg

Singapore covid 19 circuit breaker

I WILL NEVER forget….. 3rd April, 2020. This had impacted so many Singapore residents life’s as the epidemic went out of control.

At 4pm on 3rd April 2020, the Prime Minister announced closure of most workplaces, home-based learning to begin (all schools closed) and Singaporeans to stay at home as much as possible and avoid socialising with anyone outside of their family. This is call a circuit breaker.

For about a month and a half we have been taking children’s temperatures at school when they arrive and then again before lunch. We also restricted any gatherings at school to less than 40 people meaning staff meetings were split and lunchtimes were split for children. Any children with a temperature, cough or who were unwell at all were sent home immediately.

People are required to stay 1m away from others when out. Shops have tape on the ground to indicate distance when queuing.
Limited number of people allowed inside some stores.

CANCELLED!

  • Concerts
  • tours
  • festivals
  • entertainment events
  • Weddings
  • family celebrations
  • holiday gatherings
  • even funerals

Mosque are closed. We will have begin our Ramadan without a mosque.
No masses, churches are closed.

Panic buying has set in a couple of times. It can be hard to get toilet paper, disinfecting supplies, paper towels, canned food, pasta, hand sanitizer.

No delivery slots available for online groceries.
Daily Whatsapp update on new cases, clusters, recoveries and deaths.
People returning to Singapore put in hotels to self isolate for 14 days.
People wearing masks and gloves outside.

Worldwide…
There are over 1,000,000 cases of Covid-19 and over 54,000 deaths so far! This is in just 3 months.
Borders are closed
People can not travel
Airlines are going bust
‘Social distancing’ had become a new term
Entire sports seasons cancelled.
Olympics postponed to 2021.
Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill in many parts of the world. Refrigerated trucks for the dead outside hospitals in the USA, Italy, Spain, China, and more.
Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.
Fights in supermarkets over toilet paper.

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, WHO declared March 11th, 2020.

Be thankful. Be grateful.
Be kind to each other – love one another – support everyone. ♥️

Mass Fever screening

The Wuhan virus is still not been contained and had the potential to infect more people’s globally. Airports and hospitals are now equipping thermal scanner to screen human body temperature.

The mass fever thermal scanners will be in hot demand again if the Wuhan virus continues to spread. Infrastructure with high human flows such as airport, educational institutions, transport hub and hospitals need to start screening the human traffic,

For interested party, you make take a look at Omnisense System mass fever scanning machine.

https://omnisense-systems.com/products/sentry-mk4/

CNY 2020 notes run out

It is time to change new notes for the Chinese New Year 2020. But unfortunately, DBS and POSB closed the online reservation just 4 days after opening.

The online reservation starts on 09 January, 7am and end on 21 January. But in actual fact, it does not allowed you to reserve online from 12 January onwards.

The demand is too strong and DBS & POSB had closed the online reservation. Everyone know that they will be disappointed if you want to change notes at OCBC. It always displayed no more new notes at their bank branches and does not have online reservation. You can use the DBS & POSB pop up atm and good luck to all of you trying to change the new notes.

Taipei Metro for Tourist

You can travel easily using the Taipei Metro to most of the tourist attractions and destinations. This should not be an issue if you come from a country with mass rapid train services. Connecting on a Metro is more easy than a central or connecting train station.

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Taipei Metro

I have used the Taoyuan Express to travel from the airport to the Taipei Main Station. It is best that you can get your hotel or AirBnb within walking distance of the MRT Station.

EasyCard

This is one of the best travelling card that you must have in Taipei. It allowed you to travel on the Metro, local trains, express train from Taoyuan airport and many others. It save you time queuing to purchase single trip tickets and money for the trips. There is a deposit of NT$100 for the card. You may keep the card and use it when you are back at Taiwan in future.
https://www.easycard.com

Please remember to have a data roam plan or purchase a local data SIM Card. You will need it to access Google Map or Apple Map. They are the best companion on DIY trip. I use Singtel ReadyRoam services and my family will share the local data SIM Card purchase from Klook so that we can stay connected when we get separated in the busy shopping district or night markets. You can also opt to purchase at the Taoyuan Airport or at retailers in Taiwan.

 

 

 

 

Hungry Ghost Festival 2019

The Hungry Ghost Festival 2019 is here. Chinese will pray on what they belief of their custom. This is a survival guide for others whom want to understand the do and don’t during the month long festival in Singapore and Malaysia.

Chinese also pray at their work place to ensure a smooth and cordial work for them and the organisation. There are also others whom do not believe and does not allow it to be carry out at work place.

It is up to the individual and organisation to decide whether they can fit in to the traditional Chinese custom.

ES Power Leaving

ES Power had decided to leave the residential market and concentrate on other parts of their business. Their customers will be transited to iSwitch as they have form a partnership with them. There will be no direct impact to the residential customers at this point of time.

Refer to the following for more information
https://iswitch.com.sg/iswitch-absorbs-es-powers-electricity-retail-business

ES Power customers can novate to iSwitch or stay on their current contract till the end of the agreement date. You can look for new electricity retail service providers once your contractual period is over. It is good to start looking early one month before it end so that you have ample time to decide.

You are going to enjoy at least 20% savings off the retail price depending on you choosing the discount of regulated tariff plan or fixed tariff price plan. It is only the amount of SAVINGS that you are going to maximise over the contract period.
Click here to choose the 12 electricity retailers>>>

Reference Links
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/electricity-retailer-iswitch-take-over-contracts-es-power-11603316

ValueClub App Login

You will soon be unable to use your IC number to login at Challenge store for member discount.

As part of their efforts to enhance security, members will no longer be required to provide personal details at cashier counters for verification purposes. To enjoy a seamless shopping experience, download the ValueClub App, login to your account and scan the QR code during your purchase. 

Effective 08 July 2019, the following Challenger stores will only accept ValueClub App verification at point of purchase first:

Compass One
Pit.Money @ JCube
Suntec City Mall
White Sands 

In the event that a ValueClub member does not have the ValueClub App, they will not be able to enjoy member discounts.

Be prepare so that you will not be caught off guard and unable to enjoy member privileges.

Learn more on the ValueClub app.

Losing your best employee

Managers failed due to their inability or inaptitude in retaining top talent. The managers are more concern on their key performance indicators (KPI) than their staff relationship and performance. Managers are good at their job but they had forgotten about the relationship and welfare part.

Managers including the senior management have this attitude that anyone is replaceable easily like gloves. They can hire someone even better and even cost lesser than the existing staff pay package. They are cheating themselves, and doing a disservice to their company.

What happen when you lose an employee

  • You have to spend time on recruiting the competent staff
  • Time loss due to interviewing and waiting for staff
  • Negotiating the pay package with the new staff
  • Training of the new staff

The staff whom the company had lost had bought all the knowledge with him. This can never be replaced as he/she had built this bank of knowledge and experiences over the years,

A good employee had good knowledge of the systems, products, relationships and processes. They have trust relationships with clients, vendors and co-workers that takes years to build. You lose a precious commidity called TIME and it can never be recovered. There will be loss of productivity of a minimum of 2 months as the company search for a replacement.

Picture credit from Linkedin user.