Oct 9, 2012

I'm a Big Kid now

My manager requested that I let the intern tag along with me while going on my daily rounds. At first I was concerned that she will slow me down. I do, after all, work at a blistering pace. But after a moment's consideration I decided that I was game. It was not too long ago that I was an intern. And I remembered how being brought out of the office and onto the field was a real treat for me back then!

And so she tagged along for the afternoon. Partly for her benefit, I only arranged for 3 inspections that afternoon. I didn't want to inflict mental trauma, you see. The day passed smoothly, but on the drive back to office, I knew the inevitable question was looming. I should know, it used to be one of my favourite questions too. Is this your typical day? Adopting the 'honesty is the best policy' approach, I informed her that a more typical day involves 4-5 inspections. On more busy periods, you can do upwards of 10 cases per day. "My personal record is 12 inspections in 6 hours", I smiled broadly. "What we did today was a walk in the park", I added.

"You have to run so many cases, where do you find the time to type the reports?", she countered. Ah hah. There we have it, the elephant in the room nobody could bring themselves to talk about.

Oct 1, 2012

Rich Singaporeans

I read with incredulity a Strait's Times article (dated 2 June, 2012) about how a recent study by BCG has found that one in six Singaporean households are millionaires. That is to say, 17% of Singaporean households have investible assets of US$1million or more. Do note that property and other non-financial assets are excluded from consideration, which means that the number of rich in Singapore can only be more mind-boggling. Is the study credible? I find it such statistics hard to believe.

My eyes were opened not long after embarking on the job.