Becoming an employer (sort of) for a day

On the very first day of this year, I began the daunting and emotionally-wrenching process of clearing out my apartment.

For context, this was one of the final parts of a journey that began in 2015, when the Singapore Government decided to reclaim the land on which my apartment building stood, which meant that I would be relocated and suitably compensated. COVID-19 turned out to be a two-year spanner in the works. In the tail end of 2023, the new homes were finally completed and we could begin moving over.

So yes, I now have a new home which I just moved into.

The surroundings of my
spanking new home.

That wasn't the end of the story, however. I still had to clear out my old apartment and return it to the Government. This meant that all the furniture, appliances and unwanted rubbish in the apartment had to be properly disposed of. Removals company were quoting me an outrageous fee for this service. Some asked for SGD 400. One quote even went up to SGD 750.

I mean, ultimately, it's just money. But still.

An ex-schoolmate had some Bangladeshi workers he knew, who were looking to make a quick buck during the public holidays. He hooked us up, and we made a date for the first of January.

How it went

Honestly? They showed up on time, did the job without fuss, and finished in maybe three hours. At the end of it, the big-ass pine dining table, computer desk, queen-sized bed and mattress, three single beds were all dismantled and cleared. My old washing machine, refrigerator (now that was a nightmare) and other miscellenous bits of furniture were removed. And finally, everything that wasn't nailed down, was taken out in garbage bags.

They toiled, strained, and grunted. But at the end of it, it was done. Done.

Clearing out the
old place.

And they charged me a hundred Singapore dollars each, which I paid. Happily. Without haggling. Because I've been a freelancer before, and I absolutely fucking hate it when people ask me to justify my price. No, bro. My price is my price. You get to take it or leave it, but you don't get to question it.

Thus, this being the standard I set with regard to naming my price, it seemed only reasonable to extend others the same courtesy when the roles were reversed.

Was it too expensive?

This led to a question that people inevitably asked when I told them. Is this too expensive? After all, they were charging me for a full day's work, which they finished in three hours.

Let's examine the facts, then.

Firstly, remember that the typical removals company would have charged me more than double what these guys cost me, for less work.

Secondly, it was the New Year's Day, a public holiday. Many people asking this question would actually get paid overtime if they were recalled in to work on this day. In a full day's work, as a software developer, I estimate that I earn more than double what these guys were charging me. On that evidence, I saw no reason to begrudge them this.

The last point is major for someone who works with software. I'm not concerned about the fact that they worked three hours but charged me for an entire's day work, at all. Good for them; we should all aim to be this productive. The staggering amount of work they did in these few hours would have taken me an entire day. And I was more than happy to not have to sit around an entire day waiting for them to be done. It's a failure of several employers I see, a trait of The Chinese Towkay Syndrome, to value the efforts of someone by how long they work.

This is a syndrome that begrudges people money unless these people sweat buckets for that money. This obsession with having people work hard for your money, is pure foolishness. That is akin to judging the monetary worth of a software product by the number of days it took to produce it!

Get a beast of burden.

This is why I feel that Singaporeans generally make poor employers. They bitch a lot about how they're undervalued and exploited at work, but once the shoe's on the other foot, they become the exploiters with tragic alacrity, becoming the very assholes they constantly rail against. You want hard work as opposed to results? Get a fucking camel. I don't know what else to tell you.

Why would I feel inclined to pay less just because someone took less time to do the job? FFS, I'm a software developer. In our world, we believe in results, not perspiration. You generally want to encourage people to work faster, not necessarily harder, and definitely not longer hours, to produce the same result. Paying them less for it is counterintuitive, or at least it is for people who engage in logic for a living.

Are there migrant workers who could have done it for less? Maybe. Probably. But these are the ones I was handed. They did the job for less than I would have paid otherwise. They got paid well for their trouble. We both benefited from the arrangement, and everything else is just noise.

Conclusion

We should measure the value of things by work done, not by hours worked. There is a stark difference. Quantity does not equate to quality.

Don't work hard. Get work done.
T___T