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SINGAPORE – While the rules have been relaxed to allow more people to return to their workplaces, there did not appear to be a flood of workers in the Central Business District on Monday morning (September 28).
When The Straits Times visited Raffles Place around 9 a.m. during the morning rush hour, there was a slow but steady stream of workers heading from the MRT station to their work sites.
The morning crowd was similar to last Friday at around the same time, before Monday began to relax workplace rules.
All 30 workers interviewed by ST said it was not the first time they had returned to their workplaces since the two-month circuit breaker ended in early June. Instead, they had been back for some time.
Barista Shawn Tan, 23, who works at a Starbucks Coffee establishment in Raffles Place, said there was “no significant difference” in the number of customers he saw Monday compared to the past few weeks.
She now sees an average of 10-15 clients from 7:30 am to 10 am, but she noticed a regular person she hadn’t seen in a long time and thinks she might have recently returned to her workplace.
The move to allow more employees to return to their workplaces was part of the easing of safe distancing measures announced by Health Minister Gan Kim Yong at a virtual press conference last Wednesday, as the number of Covid-19 cases in the community remained low.
Employers should ensure that safe management measures are in place and that flexible working hours and staggered reporting times are also applied.
Additionally, employees must continue to work from home for at least half of their work time, and no more than half of such employees must be in the workplace at any one time.
Events within the workplace, such as seminars, corporate retreats, and annual general meetings, may also resume, although work-related events in external locations remain prohibited for now.
For many people like Ang Chung Yuh, 33, returning to work at the CBD on Monday morning has been the case for several weeks or months.
The fixed income manager said he has returned to the office since phase two began in June and, for now, his company is unlikely to change split-op plans for employees.
Eric Neo, CEO of investment company RF International Holdings, said he has been back since the circuit breaker ended.
When asked if he preferred to work from home or in the office, the 46-year-old said: “I am the father of two young children, so it is definitely more productive to work from the office.
“But if I was single and lived with my parents, it wouldn’t make much difference, but it saves a lot of travel time.”
He said the government has done a good job of slowly opening up the economy and the public has been well aware of safe distancing measures.
Neo also felt that the CBD crowd that returned in recent weeks creates a sense that “the market is coming to life.”
This is particularly true during lunchtime when queuing is a positive sign for investors and traders alike, as it is something they cannot see when working from home.
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