Career Woes

I had lunch with a colleague at Osteria Mozza yesterday. They are now located at Mandarin Gallery. I remember when they were located at MBS. Good pizzas!

We had arranged this lunch sometime back but it got postponed because of work commitments on both our parts.

He is younger colleague about 8 years into practice. Just had a new born son and he was telling me about the difficulties he was having at home managing the baby, the wife and work. He looked tired.

Also he is having difficulties with his existing boss who wasn’t getting much work, didn’t seem to want to work hard anymore and wasn’t guiding the younger ones well. As a result of low billings, his bonus last year was badly affected and doesn’t look like it will improve this year. His work flow this year looks weak and the morale in his team is low as a result of the way their boss is working.

He wants to start out anew at a new place and he knows he needs to do it soon before he hits 35 but the job market is weak and no one is hiring.

I do feel sorry for the younger people nowadays. Work is much harder with longer hours and the billing demands are also greater. Also the chances of social mobility are poorer. The days of being able to purchase a decent property and a car after working about 5 to 6 years on a decent salary and retiring comfortably seems to have evaporated. I do wonder what is the long term solution for these people and if it’s a peculiarly Singapore problem?