SINGAPORE: Cheang Qing Xin is a frequent flier who travels for work. In a year, the 34-year-old spends at most a couple of months in his three-room flat in Jalan Batu. The rest of the time is split between the US, Taiwan, and Thailand.

But Cheang is not your typical businessman or management consultant. He and his wife, Kelly Khiew, are rock climbing guides, who have managed to turn what would be a weekend hobby for most people into a personally rewarding and financially sustainable full-time career. 

“Home is my duffel bag, and depending on where I am, I could be sleeping in a tent or a sleeping bag under the stars,” he said, adding that another place to crash would be the Bivy, the climbers’ hostel the couple owns, which is next to sea cliffs in northeastern Taiwan.

Khiew trad-climbing at Longdong in Taiwan. She and Cheang spend the spring and autumn months there, running their climbers’ hostel, guiding, and teaching. (Photo courtesy of Qxadventures)

With a combined thirty years of climbing experience between them, Cheang and Khiew both left their jobs – in the military and at the National Museum of Singapore, respectively – in 2013 to try to see if they could build a lifestyle and livelihood around their hobby.

“When we started the first year of operations, we did not make very much money. It was mainly enough to pay off operations and travel expenses, as we did not get a lot of details sorted out and the clientele was very small,” said Cheang, who initially supplemented his earnings by working part-time in climbing gyms.

Three years later and with a “mid-five-figure sum” sunk in, the duo says the venture – named Qx Adventures – is on a more stable footing. But Khiew, 32, acknowledged that there are moments when she still frets over their financial status.

“I’m teaching part-time in a tuition class as well and although I don’t earn much from it, I commit myself to a small amount of time each week,” she said. “I’m still able to spend the bulk of my time on climbing, guiding, and working at the Bivy. I like how much control I have over my time now that I have the flexibility to move from one aspect of work to another.” 

DESIGNING A LIFE THAT WORKS FOR YOU

Like Cheang and Khiew, Pauline Ho and Elaine Tan, both 29, left the security of being salaried employees to embark on personal projects some three years ago. Ho transitioned from advertising to floristry, while Tan struck out in jewellery making after stints in fashion marketing and branding.

Tan’s jewellery is crafted from environment-friendly bioresin and upcycled materials like driftwood. (Photos courtesy of Amado Gudek)

Tan, who says she is “much happier now compared to being a salaryman”, was initially afraid that turning her long-time hobby into work would “kill [her] passion for jewellery-making”.

This fear turned out to be unfounded. From selling her handcrafted jewellery at small shops and bazaars as a student 10 years ago, she now runs three costume jewellery brands under her company Alfie Atelier.

Ho’s foray was a little more straightforward. The founder of Fleurapy had been documenting her newfound hobby on her Instagram handle when it got noticed by friends, who began to commission bouquets for special occasions.

“I had then left my previous job not to ‘dive’ into the floral business but to do a career switch,” she explained. “However, in the period that I was looking for a new job, the number of orders started picking up. After six months of operating from home, I decided it was time to really go into it, and I rented a studio.”

“Floral arrangement has led me to learning many things – how to run my own business, managing staff and clients. I realise that because I’m doing different things all the time, I never get tired of doing any one thing thing.” (Photo: Gideon Lim)

Speaking to the four of them, it is clear that they do not fit into common archetypes of people who choose to break away from the cookie-cutter approach to modern life. They are neither privileged individuals pursuing entrepreneurial dreams funded by family wealth, nor bohemians without responsibilities to family and society.

Anecdotally, local academics believe there are more Singaporeans breaking away from standard approaches to work and life.

“In today’s context, different career paths are leading towards success and people defining success in multiple ways. Multiple intelligence is emphasised. So, not only are the individuals willing to take the risk to try out, society is more positive about it,” said Wu Pei Chuan, a senior lecturer at the NUS Business School’s Department of Management & Organisation.

But because these individuals defy easy categorisation, it is hard to pin down exactly how many of them exist. One category they fit into is self-employed persons, which number 300,500 and make up 14 per cent of the workforce. But this category does not quite represent them, as it is a broad church including taxi drivers, hawkers, property agents, insurance brokers, company directors, and chief executive officers.

They can also be grouped with the estimated 200,000 freelancers in Singapore. But this data does not distinguish between those who are in the gig economy by choice, and those who are forced to enter less traditional employment arrangements.

Bespoke bouquets designed by Ho, who finds arranging flowers therapeutic. (Photos courtesy of Fleurapy)

REDEFINING THE GOOD LIFE

Cheang, Khiew, Ho, and Tan are Gen-Y’ers who grew up in the 90’s, seeing their elders – the baby-boomer generation – look to the 5Cs and material accumulation as a barometer of the good life.

These aspirations – Cash, Credit Card, Car, Condominium, Country Club – have since been supplanted by a broader definition of success and wellbeing, said Paul Lim, a lecturer of Organisational Behaviour & Human Resources at the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business.

According to Lim, who studies how attitudes and beliefs around work and life evolve with generational cohorts and a country’s level of wealth and development, Gen-Y’ers and millennials are influenced by the experiences of the previous generations, whom they perceived as “toiling in jobs they did not like at the expense of family time and community engagement”. They are thus more likely to feel called to a cause, and accept pay and lifestyle adjustments to act on a need “to do good”.

And the conditions enabling these Gen-Y entrepreneurs to do just that may have never been better. Technology-driven changes help them keep the cost of running a business low, and reach a wider, global clientele. On a personal level, they also face relatively fewer responsibilities to family compared to the baby-boomer generation.

In addition, the risk of entrepreneurial failure was arguably low – thanks to tight labour market conditions over the last five years. “So, even if the business didn’t work out, I could still go back to the workforce,” said Tan, reflecting on what made her take the plunge.

“You will need to have a deep interest or desire for doing what you plan to do as a business. This is key to survival as it naturally translates to perseverance and mental stamina.” (Photo courtesy of Elaine Tan)

This safety net may currently be somewhat diminished for today’s would-be rainbow chasers, as Singapore closed yet another quarter with anaemic economic growth. But the silver lining is this: Against this backdrop, there are perhaps bigger lessons to be learnt from Cheang, Khiew, Ho, and Tan – beyond feel-good exhortations to follow your heart and pursue your passions. 

They demonstrate curiosity in trying to figure out their place in the world, courage in reimagining work to fit their values, and tenacity in learning and applying themselves to a new hustle. 

“There are many people who are left out in the traditional workforce system just because they are not good at talking or doing things the ‘right’ way,” said Tan, referring to her experiences interviewing for staff. 

“This does not mean that they are less capable in any way. They just happen to lack certain skills which are perceived to be superior in modern-day living. Very often these people go on to start their own thing – which is great!” 

Amid the slowing economy and uncertain job market, many Singaporeans have said they are unsure of where to start looking for opportunities in several growth industries. To that end, TODAY has launched an eight-part weekly series that looks at the openings available, the prospects and how workers can equip themselves with the skills for these positions. In the previous instalments, we looked at the logistics, food manufacturing, hotel, early childhood and information and communications technology industries.

This week, in the sixth part of the series, we focus on the healthcare sector, which is increasingly vital to Singapore as its population ages.  For healthcare professionals, what they do is more than job – it is a calling and despite the challenges they face, they tell TODAY that the sense of satisfaction derived from making a difference in patients’ lives is something that money cannot buy. 

SINGAPORE — Having been moved by her aunt’s death a few years ago to pursue nursing as a future career, Ms Fadillah Mokhtar, who was then in her late teens, was on the verge of giving up her dream just a few days into her hospital attachment as a first-year nursing student at Nanyang Polytechnic.

She had to change an elderly patient’s diapers filled with faeces and clean him afterwards. This was not what she expected; she thought nurses merely serve medication and change wound dressings. This was not the job for her, she told herself.  

But it all changed when another elderly patient in his 70s said sorry to her for taking the trouble to clean him up.

“I felt guilty and I realised that part of caring for a patient means you have to make sure he or she is comfortable at all times – even if it means you have to get your hands dirty and clean faeces or clear urine bags,” said Ms Fadillah, 30, who has been a nurse for almost a decade.

She is now a staff nurse at the National University Hospital’s (NUH) critical care department. “I love my job and have never thought of quitting ever since. Seeing patients regain their health gives me a great satisfaction,” said Ms Fadillah.

Her aunt had cared for her when she was a child because her parents were busy working. After all that her aunt had done for her, Ms Fadillah – who was then 15 –  felt helpless and incapable of looking after her stricken aunt.  To her, nursing patients back to health in her current job is a way of making up for the lost opportunity.

Ms Fadillah’s motivation is not uncommon in the healthcare sector, where many were moved by episodes in their lives that made them realise the importance of “angels in white” – as healthcare professionals are known – and their meaningful contributions. Inspired by an occupational therapist who had helped her mother get back on her feet after she underwent a total hip replacement surgery following a fall, Ms Stella Teng left the information technology sector and signed up for the Professional Conversion Programme (PCP) for Occupational Therapists in 2010. She graduated with a degree in the discipline four years later, and joined the healthcare sector – never mind that it meant a 70-per-cent pay cut compared to her previous job as IT manager. 

Ms Teng had, in fact, considered joining the healthcare sector when she was in junior college but by her own admission, she was lured by the prospect of higher salary and joined the IT industry instead. 

“I was crunching numbers all day and helping to add to the profit margin. I realised my job was not meaningful,” said Ms Teng, 53. 

Now, as an occupational therapist at Jurong Community Hospital, “you get this sense of fulfilment that you played a huge part in helping patients regain their independence”, she said. “They can reintegrate back into society instead of ending up in a nursing home,” she added.

‘A CALLING’ 

As its population ages, Singapore’s healthcare sector is rapidly expanding. In 2015, over 91,000 healthcare workers were employed in various facilities including primary, acute and community care setting. In October last year, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced that a projected 30,000 more healthcare workers are needed by 2020. 

To attract Singaporeans to take up careers in the sector, various initiatives have been put in place over the years which include scholarships and training grants, as well as improving salaries and expanding career pathways. But as healthcare professionals would attest to, it is more than a job – it is a calling. While some may think they have the passion for it, not everyone has what it takes considering the trying – and at times, gory – situations that healthcare workers have to deal with. 

Ms Teng recalled that apart from herself, out of the five other participants who went through the PCP together with her, only one went on to become an occupational therapy.

“After they went for the clinical attachments, they know what the job entails, and realised they’re not cut out of it,” said Ms Teng.

For Mr Mohd Firdaus Mohd Salled, he faced a test just few weeks into his job as a staff nurse at Tan Tock Seng Hospital’s (TTSH) surgical department. “There was a patient who got injured after a motorbike accident and the doctor asked me to clean the wound up. It was a pretty gory scene because bones were sticking out of his leg,” said Mr Mohd Firdaus, 34.

But he soon grew accustomed to such situations, a far cry from his experience as a deployment officer at SIA Engineering. 

While it was “nerve wrecking” at first, Mr Mohd Firdaus said he has never doubted his decision to join the profession. He has been working as nurse for six years, after graduating from the PCP for Registered Nurse. 

“I know that this was the right move because I get the joy of helping other people,” said the father of three children. “The motivation is always there. I look forward going to work the next day, to help another person.”

Similarly, Ms Teng said she derives a deep sense of satisfaction from the job. She cited a “very stubborn” patient, who was in his 70s and had underwent a total knee replacement. The patient refused therapy, baulking at Ms Teng’s persuasion and even hurling vulgarities at her.

But her perseverance paid off eventually. “It took three weeks to finally get him to agree to do therapy, but it was worth it,” she said with a smile. 

DIFFERENT ROLES, SAME OBJECTIVE 

To meet the growing needs of an ageing population, an array of jobs require filling in the healthcare industry. Even for those are not in the frontline, they are making a difference in patients’ lives.  

TTSH advance care planning coordinator Roland Chang recalled a case of an elderly couple where the husband has mild dementia and the wife had fractured her shoulder after a fall. The wife was worried about care arrangements for her husband if she could no longer look after him, and they wanted to sign up for advance care planning. As part of his job, Mr Chang advises patients on the type of care they would prefer if they were to become physically or mentally incapacitated to make healthcare decisions in the future. Mr Chang, 47, said: “I’ve seen how patients feel relieved and reassured knowing their medical needs are taken care of. This is the satisfaction that I get even though I only played a small role.”

Over at Mount Elizabeth Hospital, operations executive Natarie Low and her colleagues recently created a map for patients and family members to help them find their way around the hospital. This, after she observed that some were unsure of where to go when they arrived at the hospital. 

“I saw that a number of patients kept coming up to my colleagues asking for directions,’” said Ms Low, 25, who can be seen patrolling the hospital wards regularly to assess whether there is enough manpower or troubleshoot problems such as faulty computers.

Despite graduating with a science degree from the National University of Singapore, Ms Low was not keen on being a lab researcher. As she has always been curious as to what goes on behind the scenes at hospitals, she did not have think twice when she was offered the job at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

Ms Shailaja Suresh Kumar, the hospital’s assistant vice-president for operations, said her team comprises less than 10 employees and they are looking to hire more, as the number of patients increase. Last year, the hospital admitted 24,000 patients, 7 per cent more than 2015. 

Ms Low said: “The things that we do might seem minor, but indirectly, we are making sure that delivery of care to patients run smoothly. For those keen to enter healthcare, don’t restrict yourself to traditional roles. It is not just nurses and doctors who play a role in delivering quality care.”

PASSION, PASSION, PASSION 

While low salaries were a common bugbear in the industry, the Government has taken steps to raise the salaries of doctors and nurses in the public sector in recent years.  

For example, the Home Nursing Foundation (HNF), which currently employs 87 full-time staff, has increased the salaries of its nurses by up to 20 per cent in the last three years, its chief executive Karen Lee said. “We understand that while people join and stay for the passion, there are (practical issues) to be dealt with including feeding their children and paying off mortgages,” she added.

For healthcare workers, there is no doubt where their motivation lies. Ms Fadillah noted that many people may be unaware that nurses sometimes forego their meal breaks and work beyond their shift hours to care for patients. But what makes the job rewarding is seeing the patients recover, she said. 

Ms Fadillah recounted an example of how a patient of hers was taken off from the ventilator as she could breathe on her own. “It is a small progress but it puts a smile on my face because it shows that I have done something right for the patient. And for healthcare workers, all we want to see is that we’ve made a difference in their lives,” she said. 

SINGAPORE — Senior architectural designer Richard Kuppusamy cuts an unusual sight in busy construction sites when he navigates expertly past enormous cranes and trucks, manoeuvres around floors scattered with various tools, and even gets on temporary hoists – in his wheelchair.

Born with spina bifida – a congenital spinal cord defect which leaves him paralysed from the waist down – Mr Kuppusamy has been in the construction industry for over 11 years and has never once been refused entry on site, even though he has drawn curious looks.

“There’s been (times) when the lift wasn’t ready yet, but it was never a matter of ‘we’re not providing access’ for you… And that willingness to do things has made it possible for me to work in this industry,” the 40-year-old told TODAY.

This willingness to provide access to him across the company’s front door as a wheelchair user, and the availability of a wheelchair-accessible toilet, were the key questions he had for potential employers in 2012 when he considered returning home to be closer to his parents after spending 16 years in the UK training and working as an architect. 

“Call me arrogant if you like… I knew my business and I knew I have skills to offer any employer… But I also knew my future is limited by my accessibility,” said Mr Kuppusamy, whose portfolio includes specialist emergency care hospitals, universities, retail and commercial developments, and even the BBC Scotland headquarters.

In the end, he joined architecture firm WOHA Architects, whose management spent S$109,070 retrofitting their shophouse office with ramps, stair lifts and renovated the toilets to make the workplace accessible for him, shared WOHA co-founder Wong Mun Summ.  

Jokingly, Mr Kuppusamy said he has since become the “poster boy” for this concept of “universal design”, which is the cornerstone of his work and something he tries to incorporate into local projects that he has worked on, including new generation public housing projects like SkyVille@Dawson and Kampung Admiralty, the upcoming 11-storey integrated development in Woodlands.

These have lush sky terraces that double up as “outdoor living rooms” for the community to gather, flat pathways and handrails, as well as Braille and colour contrasts on signage.

Beyond building ramps, he said universal design is about designing with “people” as the priority, and making it intuitive so that everyone, be it young mothers with prams or the elderly, is able to enjoy the environment. 

To that end, he trains himself in understanding other people’s disabilities and needs as well. Good design, he said, is the key to social inclusion as people with disabilities would have more chances to come and interact with society. 

“Building owners don’t take the needs of disabled people seriously because they say there aren’t enough disabled people to matter. But disabled people aren’t getting out of their homes and into the shopping mall or cinema because it’s those building owners who aren’t doing enough to make their premises accessible. It’s all a vicious cycle that needs to be turned around,” he said.

In fact, part of the reason why the Singaporean, who became a wheelchair user in his early 20s, was hesitant to return home five years ago was because he felt here, he has to fight for even the most basic rights like equal access. 

It is times when a van driver occupies his handicapped parking lot to unload his goods without apologising, a sales assistant speaking only to his girlfriend while they are out shopping, or the handicapped toilets in malls are occupied by able-bodied people who just wanted “a larger room” that Mr Kuppusamy feels disabled.

Having spent most of his life growing up in what he called “more enlightened” countries like New Zealand, the United States and Switzerland because of his father’s overseas posting, he was never given any special treatment in all the mainstream schools he attended, save for a few minutes extra to move between classes.

“I never got siloed into a special needs school. After all, I don’t have special needs. My physical disability doesn’t define who I am or what I am capable of doing,” he said, adding his decision to become an architect came about after a family friend’s suggestion and a desire to put his practical nature and love for problem-solving to good use.

Since coming back, while he noted that Singapore has made big strides in improving accessibility, he urged for more to be done to ensure a more proportionate number of accessible homes, parking, and toilets, and for solutions not to be tacked on just as an afterthought.

He said design here is still geared towards enabling caregivers to give assisted care instead of helping disabled people to lead independent lives. For example, putting enough knee-space under sinks in apartments would allow wheel-chair users to do their own dishes instead of relying on others.

But the biggest barrier to accessibility remains Singapore’s me-first attitudes and mentality, he said. People need to put aside their personal agendas to “work towards a more humane society”.

For now, the captain of the Singapore Wheelchair Rugby team and executive committee member of the Handicaps Welfare Association, is doing what he can to drive causes he is passionate about.

Counting himself as a “uniquely lucky case”, Mr Kuppusamy said that what keeps him going is the mantra of leading to serve. “I’ve made my own opportunities where I can, and I have a duty like everyone else to give a little something back. I realised very early on that if I want change, I need to be the one driving that change,” he said. 

Support the TODAY Enable Fund for the special needs community. Find out more via www.todayonline.com/enable

If you know of more stories of people with disabilities, email us at news@newstoday.com.sg

THE Philippine government is taking in its stride the naming of President Rodrigo Duterte in a global report on rights abuses as a populist leader who has intensified the “flouting of human rights”.

Responding to the Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2017 released Friday, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella reportedly defended the president’s “authoritative” leadership, saying his approach was similar to that of the late Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew.

According to Rappler, Abella said in an interview with state-run dzRB: “Like Lee Kuan Yew, you know, he was also very strict… Before, he was very strict when he was still in leadership, but then you can also see the progress of the nation.”

Singapore’s founding father, the late Lee Kuan Yew. Pic: Lee Kuan Yew’s Facebook Page

Lee, who passed away at 91 on March 23, 2015, was known to be authoritative in his methods but also remains respected to this day as the leader who transformed the island state from a third world nation into a thriving metropolitan city.

Abella also lashed out at those who placed labels on Duterte, saying such labels “limit you”.

He pointed out that while Duterte’s leadership approach may oftentimes be seen as harsh, the president was acting out of respect for the law.

“But the President is very authoritative and… let us remember that he goes by the rule of law,” Abella was quoted as saying.

He also said that the “liberal political order” is “antagonistic” toward authoritative approaches in government and that the Philippines remains “very Asian”.

Asians, he explained further, place greater importance on working to achieve a “common good” as opposed to the liberal ideal of fighting to uphold individual rights.

SEE ALSO: Duterte slammed by human rights watchdog for unleashing a ‘rights calamity’

In the HRW report, the group’s Director Kenneth Roth warned of the rise of populist leaders claiming to speak for “the people,” whilst seeking to overturn the concept of human rights protections.

Roth expressed fear that “when populists treat rights as an obstacle to their vision of the majority will, it is only a matter of time before they turn on those who disagree with their agenda.”

The report in its Philippines chapter noted that since taking office in June 2016, Duterte has pursued a controversial and bloody campaign to wipe out drug crime. In the process, police and “unidentified gunmen” have killed several thousand people, it said.

Rather than holding those responsible for the killings to account, Duterte and his senior government officials have praised the deadly approach, the rights watchdog pointed out.

“In the name of wiping out ‘drug crime,’ President Duterte has steamrolled human rights protections and elevated unlawful killings of criminal suspects to a cornerstone of government policy,” Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director at HRW, said in a statement on Friday.

The 687-page report launched Friday studies alleged rights abuses in over 90 countries.

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