Originally posted by vIn.Warrior:
That's why nowadays buying of food in public is 'secretly' done. Some will chose to dabao and bring along their food before their duty.
I guess maybe because to most people, it seems inappropriate for PO wearing their uniform to stroll along hawker centre and decide what to buy for lunch. After all, most of the time, uniformed PO are always seen doing duties and not other thing else.
It's just like army. If all soldiers were to wear their uniform ONLY duing operations and trainings, then when they put on their uniform in hawker centres, it is seemed as inappropriate.
So, it's a matter of misconception that POs cannot eat during their duties.
My 2 cents.
It still depends lah. My folks always queue up to buy food, and we regularly frequent a crowded hawker centre some more. People dont exactly look at us with scorn, especially if you look like you just doing your business and you scoot away immediately after you are done. It also helps when you have to buy for others....male folks automatically think you are that poor rank-and-file who have to dapao under the orders of your "hardworking" superior stuck in the office (even thou 99% of the time we are just buying for our peers stuck at the counters).
We do draw a line when it comes to actually sitting down and eating at hawker centres etc. If we have to do it, it is usually at some super ulu food centre in the middle of an ulu industrail estate. The only other time I did eat at relatively public areas is when it was like....3am?
And its simply not true that the army has this kind of decorum. They are the most guilty of all in this. Just go to any major shopping centre which are near military bases during lunch hours, and you are definitely going to see throngs of army folks in full uniform eating and window shopping. I don't see that as a problem, probably coz I am so used to it already.