Crappiest companies in Singapore

[Wd40]

It last for 6 month - on my one year employment there. We had a good time occasionally when we able to go home at 11 pm and attend the meeting at 8.30 the next day (extra sleep for couple of hour) oh oh and we only had one day off in a week (which in real life only half day - because we have to go to office to attend the 8.30 am meeting). On our last month, everybody going crazy.

And I just wonder, if 9 hr 45 min is crappy, then what should you call my experience?

I dont think I would work that much for even my own company. I mean, if I could make say 1000$ for every hour worked. I would still work for max 10 hours. If I work any more I will die.

[iloverice]

definitely the pay sucks, but our hands are tied with "bond". It's alright, all in the past, and a good "experience" for me and my friends, life is tough indeed.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Yep, people who go to school here and sign a bond are normally abused by the local employer big time! Hell, there was even the vidcap about a month ago where the employer slapped the crap out of an "intern" who had been an intern for way longer that what was supposed to be. Another case of employer abuse. This country's SMEs are notorious for abuse of one kind or another.

[AngMoG]

I think I can chime in as well here. I worked previously for an SME, it started bad but then quickly got worse.

One thing was that the CEO somehow thought people were not working enough. They were also running outsourced helpdesk, where those people had fixed hours of course. They did have a tap-in/tap-out system, but apparently that was not enough. To make sure everyone was in by 9am sharp (and left no later than 6pm), they started with a daily morning meeting at that time, where everyone had to take turns giving a motivational/informational presentation (one per day). If you were late 3 times a month, you faced a $50 penalty, and if that happened often enough, you would get an HR warning. Needless to say, I only lasted a year there. It also really pissed off the sales people, and predictably everyone left at 6pm sharp.

And if that was not enough, that company also had the CEO's girlfriend working for it, in various positions (ba-dum-tss). Stories vary as to what happened before I was there, but rumor has it she had once been the HR manager, but was then banned by MoM for professional misconduct from doing that job. She then left the company for a while to work as a recruitment manager which she inevitably failed at. She then returned as Office Manager (or something like that), also taking care of some of the marketing and "branding". Then she took over some HR duties again. Needless to say, she was (somewhat) pretty, half the age of the CEO, bitchy and with no common sense or professional knowledge. Luckily, I did not have to work with her as part of my job scope.

[Addadude]

The first company I worked at in Singapore was notorious for the way it treated its staff. (Of course I only found this out after I joined - but this was long before the Interweb....) Bonds, contracts, threats of legal action, intimidation, shouting, verbal abuse... all par for the course. In the course of my 3 years there (yes, I was on a contract too) things did get a little more civilized but it was definitely your typical local SME run by a towkay Chinese boss. That company is no longer in existence.

Generally speaking, ad agencies would fall into the 'crappy company' category. Long hours (12 hour days are considered normal, working through the night a frequent occurrence), burnt weekends, insane deadlines, abusive clients, constant rejection, continuous movement of goal posts, poor pay (very few people in the agency business are well remunerated), very little job security (everybody in this business has been fired abruptly at least once in their career) and as for bonuses? Don't make me laugh - I'll end up crying. And yet people are queuing up to work in the industry - and are even willing to take significant pay cuts to work in the sexier agencies. Go figure.

[the lynx]

One thing was that the CEO somehow thought people were not working enough. They were also running outsourced helpdesk, where those people had fixed hours of course. They did have a tap-in/tap-out system, but apparently that was not enough. To make sure everyone was in by 9am sharp (and left no later than 6pm), they started with a daily morning meeting at that time, where everyone had to take turns giving a motivational/informational presentation (one per day). If you were late 3 times a month, you faced a $50 penalty, and if that happened often enough, you would get an HR warning. Needless to say, I only lasted a year there. It also really pissed off the sales people, and predictably everyone left at 6pm sharp.

Sounds like my former company. Of course I smelled it early enough to plan my exit, which was the best move I ever did in my life. My former colleagues in that company are having it worse at each passing year and MOM is hot on his trail...

[Barnsley]

definitely the pay sucks, but our hands are tied with "bond". It's alright, all in the past, and a good "experience" for me and my friends, life is tough indeed.

So how come you left the last gathering early??

[yogaloungeforever]

well all chinaman co's are like this.

the last one i was in, this local indian chap thought that the poor performance of the company was owing to poor productivity. hence when he came in, first thing he did was instructed that everyone had to be in no later than 9am. if anyone caught coming in 5 minutes past 9am, 3 times consecutively, will be called into the great meeting with HR. the other thing with this co was the easy firing. it was so common to see HR walking up to a staff and then seeing the staff and HR walking into a room and less than 2 hours later the staff is seen walking out of the office with all his / her belongings. no mention is made of that staff again and no one knows why that particular staff was fired.

I think I can chime in as well here. I worked previously for an SME, it started bad but then quickly got worse.

One thing was that the CEO somehow thought people were not working enough. They were also running outsourced helpdesk, where those people had fixed hours of course. They did have a tap-in/tap-out system, but apparently that was not enough. To make sure everyone was in by 9am sharp (and left no later than 6pm), they started with a daily morning meeting at that time, where everyone had to take turns giving a motivational/informational presentation (one per day). If you were late 3 times a month, you faced a $50 penalty, and if that happened often enough, you would get an HR warning. Needless to say, I only lasted a year there. It also really pissed off the sales people, and predictably everyone left at 6pm sharp.

And if that was not enough, that company also had the CEO's girlfriend working for it, in various positions (ba-dum-tss). Stories vary as to what happened before I was there, but rumor has it she had once been the HR manager, but was then banned by MoM for professional misconduct from doing that job. She then left the company for a while to work as a recruitment manager which she inevitably failed at. She then returned as Office Manager (or something like that), also taking care of some of the marketing and "branding". Then she took over some HR duties again. Needless to say, she was (somewhat) pretty, half the age of the CEO, bitchy and with no common sense or professional knowledge. Luckily, I did not have to work with her as part of my job scope.

[AngMoG]

Strangely enough, this particular company was run by an Ozzie guy...

well all chinaman co's are like this.

the last one i was in, this local indian chap thought that the poor performance of the company was owing to poor productivity. hence when he came in, first thing he did was instructed that everyone had to be in no later than 9am. if anyone caught coming in 5 minutes past 9am, 3 times consecutively, will be called into the great meeting with HR. the other thing with this co was the easy firing. it was so common to see HR walking up to a staff and then seeing the staff and HR walking into a room and less than 2 hours later the staff is seen walking out of the office with all his / her belongings. no mention is made of that staff again and no one knows why that particular staff was fired.

[Wd40]

Talking of Ozzie guy, there was this company a very small software shop that has an office in Australia and also a small office in Singapore, found me on linked in and asked me if I was interested in a job and I said yes we set up an interview appointment.

After that I decided to do some research on the company and googled based on the company name and the boss's name.

And here's an article I found about the company:

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-la ... er-sacking

The person named in the article is the same person with whom I spoke


Needless to say, I politely refused to appear for the interview. Its amazing how a bad name can really haunt you on the internet.

[the lynx]

glassdoor.com maybe?

[yogaloungeforever]

Ooh err ... I guess now all SME's have the same problems. I have never worked for an aussie so wouldn't be able to comment however i have worked for a small english co once and the owner was a compassionate chap. the welfare of his workers came first because he once said that we each had a contribution and eventually gained that kind of knowledge with the co so if the staff left it would be hard for him to find another replacement who may take ages to learn the co and it's tech inside out

Strangely enough, this particular company was run by an Ozzie guy...

well all chinaman co's are like this.

the last one i was in, this local indian chap thought that the poor performance of the company was owing to poor productivity. hence when he came in, first thing he did was instructed that everyone had to be in no later than 9am. if anyone caught coming in 5 minutes past 9am, 3 times consecutively, will be called into the great meeting with HR. the other thing with this co was the easy firing. it was so common to see HR walking up to a staff and then seeing the staff and HR walking into a room and less than 2 hours later the staff is seen walking out of the office with all his / her belongings. no mention is made of that staff again and no one knows why that particular staff was fired.

[yogaloungeforever]

well at least the victim was compensated. i doubt it will happen here in Singapore. worse still, you may have to fork out a bomb for legal fees to have lawyers fight your case

Talking of Ozzie guy, there was this company a very small software shop that has an office in Australia and also a small office in Singapore, found me on linked in and asked me if I was interested in a job and I said yes we set up an interview appointment.

After that I decided to do some research on the company and googled based on the company name and the boss's name.

And here's an article I found about the company:

http://www.odt.co.nz/news/queenstown-la ... er-sacking

The person named in the article is the same person with whom I spoke


Needless to say, I politely refused to appear for the interview. Its amazing how a bad name can really haunt you on the internet.

[Wd40]

Absolutely! Read this part:

The applicant was also entitled to "compensation for humiliation and distress" due to the abrupt manner of communicating her dismissal, embarrassment at realising another employee had been able to overhear the telephone conversation and an observation by another employee following the conversation that Ms Symons should not be left alone in the office, which "unfairly besmirched her integrity, compounding her distress".

This would sound like greek and latin to Asians. On the contrary here, they have security guards ready to escort you out

[martincymru]

It's all about culture.
If you come from a country that has little regard for another person's pain then somehow you become like them after a while (or you already are one of them) = no problem.

But oil and water don't mix hence why expats seldom work for Asian companies.

Of course it depends who needs who the most bla... bla...bla.. but let's ignore that for the sake of this discussion.

I try to think/plan ahead for the worst thing that can happen even for events that are nearly beyond my comprehension. Lived in Asia 10 years and still I dont understand why decisions are made which are blatant masochism.