Contributed by: Norjaha Binti Mohamed Hussain, 64
Miss Norjaha comes from a family with two daughters and eight sons where she was the eldest daughter. She started work when she was 20 after her father passed away. She had wanted to work before her father’s passing, however her father had refused as he had worked in a bank and could support the family without requiring her to help financially.
After her father’s passing, they had a little fortune of inheritance left to them. But as it would not last, 20-year-old Miss Norjaha had to stop her education at Secondary Two to look for a job and help to support the family.
Her first job was at a plywood factory located in Jurong. As she lived in Toa Payoh at that time, she stayed with her aunt at the Railway quarters at Tanjong Pagar. A lorry comes to pick her and her uncle to Jurong every morning and she only goes back to her home in Toa Payoh once a week. Her role was to look at the consistency of the wood and smoothen it. The working hours were from 7am-7pm with tea breaks and lunch time included.
“It’s not a very difficult job” she said. “We were given proper equipment to protect ourselves against dust from the wood and the pay was satisfying.”
She made friends working at the factory and ate with them during breaks. The lunch groups were grouped according to races and they did not really mingle among other races partially for food convenience sake as there are certain types of food that Malays could not eat.
Miss Norjaha said that everybody had a hard life at that time so it was hard to compare who had it worse. However having friends in the factory kept her happy and kept her going on.
There was one time when the wood did not come down the line for them to work for a long time and the workers got worried as they had to finish a certain criteria for work in a limited amount of time in order for them to get paid. In the end, it was found out that there was one woman who was taking wood off the line and keeping it for herself in order to assure herself that she would have enough wood to work on to meet the criteria. Miss Norjaha and her friends called the supervisor to resolve the problem and the woman who kept the wood was given a warning. The wood was then put back on the line and the workers were given extra time to meet the necessary criteria.
“Everybody has to work with one heart and work together, then the work place will be a happier place,” said Miss Norjaha.
After working at the plywood factory for 5-6 years, she moved on to a cardboard-making factory for another 5-6 years and then to another factory that dealt with electronics.
After she got married, she changed to working in condominiums as a cleaner.
Miss Norjaha felt that her best working experience was in the condominiums as the residents were kind and there was little supervision. She liked the freedom and she never really knew who her boss was, she only knew her supervisors.
Once her condominium contract ended, the company reassigns her to a new place and she has worked in a total of seven condominiums before she retired on 15 December 2012.
“As long as you need me I will serve. Don’t need me I’ll work for another.”
Miss Norjaha now stays alone in a one room flat in Ang Mo Kio and is only close to her one sister who visits her often.
Interview done by Sia Xin Rang Sophronia from Nanyang Girls' High School on 25 May 2013.
(This memory is collected in collaboration with Nanyang Girls' High School and Thye Hua Kwan Moral Charities for the "Hands: Gift of a Generation" campaign.)
