Unlocking New Doors Of Service
A long-serving Deputy Superintendent with the Singapore Prison Service (SPS), Mervin Lee was just six months away from his retirement age of 56. Around then, he received an email from the Public Service Division offering several career transition opportunities for personnel like himself who were approaching the end of their tenures at SPS. One that caught Mervin’s eye was a six-month work attachment with Lions Befrienders.
Thus began a brand-new start for Mervin as an Assistant Programme Executive with LB AAC @ Tampines 434 in June 2023, following a successful 33-year SPS career that at its height saw him manage 40 staff and oversee about 140 prison inmates at Changi. In February 2024, when Mervin officially stepped down from SPS, he was offered a full-time role as a Programme Executive at LB, a position that he gladly accepted.
Did leaving the workforce for good ever cross his mind, and if so, what motivated Mervin to join LB instead?
“Initially, I was thinking of a full retirement to spend quality time with my elderly parents,” Mervin muses. “But I am blessed that they are still healthy and can travel around. What do I do when I’m by myself then, at 56, when those in the private sector work up till 63 or 65?”
Further reflecting back on why he first entered SPS, Mervin wanted to play a part in changing lives, engaging offenders and hoping to help them. In a similar vein, he believed that joining LB presented him the chance to connect with seniors and to better understand them from their perspective. Mervin observes, “Both (jobs) involve interacting with and managing people. The communication skills I acquired over the last 30 years helped a lot (at LB).”
Vast experiences that Mervin had garnered from his various postings at SPS – from administration and operations to management and staff work – also put him in excellent stead as a Programme Executive, such as the planning and coordination of active ageing programmes, supervision of outdoor activities, as well as outreach efforts.
No doubt, Mervin has had to adapt his approach to work in very contrasting environments. Looking at his jovial demeanour and constant ability to draw laughter from the seniors he interacts with at the AAC, it is almost unimaginable that his bearing, by his own admission, was viewed in a very different light in his previous line of work. “I had to be firm, fair and could not be seen as being biased (towards certain groups of inmates),” he explains.
Mervin’s time at LB thus far has already reaped some benefits for himself, not least finding it easier to empathise and communicate with his own parents, especially about more delicate subjects such as end-of-life arrangements. His conversations with seniors also netted him some sound advice, such as encouraging him to plan more trips to see the world while he had the energy to do so.
A career transition after more than 30 years may seem like a daunting prospect, but for Mervin, it simply marks the beginning of another chapter in his decades-long commitment to serving others, utilising his skills and passions to make a difference in the lives of those under his care.