焦
点
人
物
In Focus
Not a job, but
a livelihood.
不仅仅是
份工作
Conversations With:
Teng Kim Whatt
访问 ：
邓锦发
In this day and age, one would
be hard-pressed to find someone who
has worked in the same company for 10
years, let alone 40 years.
Meet Mr Teng Kim Whatt. A
slightly-built man that belies the hard
years of toil, he has worked in Wong
Fong Engineering Works for more than
40 years since its founding in a small
zinc-roofed workshop on the banks of
a canal in Bukit Panjang, Singapore.
Having started work in Wong Fong
Engineering at the age of 16 through
a friend’s recommendation, he has
steadily and tirelessly given the better
part of his years to this company.
“Back then, I didn’t like studying
and didn’t know any skills” he said
modestly. “Coming into Wong
Fong Engineering allowed me
to learn a skill”
It was common to start working
at a young age in those days. He
started working alongside several
other apprentices under the tutelage of
teachers, or Shifus, who taught them
the skills of the trade. In a time when
there were no automated machines to
help make the work easier, everything
was done with hard, manual labour
and at the command of the Shifus. This,
however, made them cultivate a sense
of pride and dedication to their work.
Small habits such as cleaning up at the
end of the day, replacing tools back in
their proper place after use, to unspoken
practices such as using materials in a
smart way so as to reduce wastage for
the company were some of the examples
of the culture nurtured in them.
None of this was lost on Mr Teng,
“Apprenticeship was very strict. We
always had to do what the Shifu told
us to do, even if he wanted us to go get
him a cup of coffee. We would have to
tidy up the workshop at the end of every
day before we went home. Workers
nowadays are less aware of the safety
implications when tools are left lying
around the workshop. In the past, all of
us had the same mentality of wanting
to help the company in everything we
did, like saving the company’s money by
not carelessly wasting material.”
Indeed, according to Mr Teng,
working and learning together in their
small workshop made everyone, from
the boss to the workers, seem like family,
sharing the ups and downs. “Our boss,
Jimmy, although a quiet and reserved
man, would often come down into the
workshop to talk to us and find out
how we were doing. Everyone got along
very well. James, Jimmy’s younger
brother, is a good friend of mine and
I watched his son grow up over the
years.”
Since its founding in 1964 till this
day, Wong Fong Engineering has also
grown immeasurably from its infancy
with just 6 young, hardworking men
to be an industry leader with over a
200 staff and workers. To Mr Teng
however, he does not think work has
changed much from when he first
started all those years back. True to his
unassuming self, he says matter-offactly “The work we do has not changed
by much through the years, only that
business has increased. In fact, one
thing has never changed is that work
constantly comes in and our jobs are
never done.”
Long may that continue.
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