Sheng Siong Safe Distancing Ambassador Tells Us What It’s Like On The Job

The Covid-19 outbreak has created a new job that Singaporeans have never heard of before the pandemic: safe distancing ambassadors. These folks are hired to ensure that the public complies with the government’s safe distancing measures, which include standing one metre apart from your fellow men and wearing your mask.

This also includes not overcrowding supermarkets, which Nicolette Lim, 23, had to enforce when she took on a job as a safe distancing ambassador for supermarket chain Sheng Siong. She was stationed at a heartland outlet in Bedok, where she primarily took customers’ temperatures to check for a fever and scanned IC particulars for potential contact tracing.

Prior to working with Sheng Siong, the Ngee Ann Polytechnic Film, Sound & Video graduate tells 8days.sg that she was working “for about two years” in media production, which has come to a standstill due to the circuit breaker. “When CB started, my contract was temporarily suspended. I thought I should still go and find another job within the industry, but no one could shoot, so no one was hiring. I needed a temporary job so I could have income during the circuit breaker.”

She came across the safe distancing ambassador contract job on a recruitment agency’s Telegram chat group. “The job scope was to ensure people stand one metre apart, take their temperature and all that. I thought no harm, I can just try this out and gain experience. You never know how all these experiences can help you learn something,” she says.