SINGAPORE — Over the years, public relations (PR) professional Yvonne Koh has seen her fair share of “wasted talent” – women who are passionate and proficient in their work but quit their jobs after trying to balance caring for their young children and the demands of the work.
Each week, TODAY’s long-running Big Read series delves into the trends and issues that matter. This week, we look at what workplaces can do to support parents in raising their children. This is a shortened version of the full feature, which can be found here.
Now the boss of her own PR agency, Ms Koh is determined to ensure that her own employees can have the best of both worlds: A fulfilling career in their industry and family-friendly hours. She told TODAY that the school permitted her to take only two months of maternity leave postpartum, and she had to clear the remaining two months by working a four-day work week over several months.“It was as though it was my fault I had to take leave for my baby. I had to pay for the doctor’s consultation fee to get a medical certificate just to prove my baby really was sick.”
As Singapore strives to be family-friendly, can it still maintain its status as one of the most competitive economies in the world?Struggles of working mothers — and fathers too — are back in the national discourse after Prime Minister Lawrence Wong announced at his maiden National Day Rally on Aug 18 several new policies aimed at promoting a “family-friendly environment” for Singapore.
At its Bras Basah headquarters, Income Insurance has a nursing room that can be used by three employees at the same time. While overcoming these challenges is far from straightforward, experts said the key is to stay ahead of the curve by anticipating such resource constraints and planning ahead, ensuring that the company does not “crumble” when employees go on caregiving or parental leave.When it comes to parental leave, the provisions in Singapore — where total fertility rate fell to a historic low of 0.97 in 2023 — do seem less generous than those of other developed societies.
On the flip side, South Korea offers its fathers 53 weeks of paternity leave, but very few men take it up due to fears of being left behind in their jobs, because the social stigma attached to not prioritising work or career is deeply entrenched in their work culture, she said. But this idea that workers have to respond might simply be a misconception, said 34-year-old lawyer Eugene Neo, who himself is on a flexi-work arrangement to care for his family members at home.
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