Crappiest companies in Singapore

[PNGMK]

Unfortunately my lovely old school employer has been acquired by a massive US company (I mean massive - in the top 5 companies). I'm expecting frankly a really bad time. Everything from working 12 hours a day to back of the plane travel to a nasty boss to unclear reporting lines to confusing work flows to Sigma Six crap.

[PNGMK]

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.

That company and founders can only be called con men. I know of them from Oz as well.

[ecureilx]

Where I work I think Singapore is the only site in the world that doesn't have a clock in and clock out system.

Swings and roundabouts?

our place too, no clock in out .. with close to 500 staff head count .. (maybe it is too small.. )

yah, I worked for SMEs before ..

One place, I found a colleague was scamming, told the MD, and I get a warning letter for not having told earlier .. turns out the MD was in the scam as well .. well ..

And at another, the CEO/MD had recording devices attached to their office phones and will refuse to take calls on their hand phone .. and when you call their office line, they record, in case things go wrong, they can sue you .. and boy they did sue a few guys who accused them of robbing the parent company (ours was a subsidiary) alas the accusers didn't have enough proof and they were all sued and made to pay between 10,000 to 20,000 - and of course, all the damages went to the Lawyer, the name starting with D ... and the lawyer of course sent our MD / CEO Chinese Raffles Hotel Chinese Moon Cakes for the first case, as an appreciation gift (all the rest swallowed by the lawyer) and for second case, we got some fancy Marriot or Hilton Cake .. and the top cheese' were excited .. for having won the case ..

And since the MD and CEO used to call on me to fix their 'IT' work, and then I found out the emails going in and out, for the 50 odd staff, all gets copied secretly to the top guys .. and lot more .. I was tempted to take some info .. then I realised if I file a case, there is no anonymity in SG .. at one time or other, they may find out who did rat them out ..

Any SME in Singapore is crappy.

Oh yes.

Well, let me say ... MOST of them are crappy .. having worked for a grand total of 8 companies so far .. no, I didn't leave for any fault of mine, it was due to the boss changing his 'business' plan or finding a sucker to sell of their businesses ..

[PNGMK]

I've never had such a bad experience in SME's as you all. But yes - companies owned by the bosses tend to be treated as the boss's bank,workshop,play ground etc. I'd be the same to be honest.

In Australia you see less of this. The tax rules (FBT) make it quite hard.

Farmers though are another matter.

[movingtospore]

Man I would love to just work from 845 to 630. Sign me up!

[nakatago]

The long hours tend to be more ingrained with Asians. Working longer = more productive. Asian managers tend to view people going home early as slackers, even if they're efficient.

I've had a manager tell me that I need to spend longer hours to accomplish more. But hell no; I got a life. If I can get my work done during office hours or earlier, I will. Anything beyond that is a bonus for them from me. I will work overtime if I need to but if you're saying it is needed all the time, you got to work on your scheduling/manpower loading skills.

As much as they want an employee to devote all their waking hours to the company, that's just not healthy. People got family, other interests...you know , life.

[x9200]

Not having any employment experience with the local SMEs I would still be inclined to say that likely the crappiness of some companies has a lot to do with the local labor quality.

[zzm9980]

Not having any employment experience with the local SMEs I would still be inclined to say that likely the crappiness of some companies has a lot to do with the local labor quality.

I would agree. I also think a lot of those crummy bosses are unqualified people from the same labor pool promoted for any reason other than qualifications. When you give a clueless idiot a bit of power, they become jerks.

[zzm9980]

The long hours tend to be more ingrained with Asians. Working longer = more productive. Asian managers tend to view people going home early as slackers, even if they're efficient.

I've had a manager tell me that I need to spend longer hours to accomplish more. But hell no; I got a life. If I can get my work done during office hours or earlier, I will.

I get more done by 11am Monday than many in my office by mid-week. Since I'm one of the few that report through the US (no dotted line bullshit), my group just leaves and make our own hours. I know the local peons hate my group for it, but they can't do a single thing. It's great.

[x9200]

Not having any employment experience with the local SMEs I would still be inclined to say that likely the crappiness of some companies has a lot to do with the local labor quality.

I would agree. I also think a lot of those crummy bosses are unqualified people from the same labor pool promoted for any reason other than qualifications. When you give a clueless idiot a bit of power, they become jerks.

This, but also on the other side: how many average employees do their work efficiently? If they are rather poor in this, the only way to have the job done is to make them working longer.

[the lynx]

Not having any employment experience with the local SMEs I would still be inclined to say that likely the crappiness of some companies has a lot to do with the local labor quality.

I would agree. I also think a lot of those crummy bosses are unqualified people from the same labor pool promoted for any reason other than qualifications. When you give a clueless idiot a bit of power, they become jerks.

This, but also on the other side: how many average employees do their work efficiently? If they are rather poor in this, the only way to have the job done is to make them working longer.

If SME offices really ban Facebook in the office network like they should have, that will be very helpful.

:sarcasm:

[ecureilx]

If SME offices really ban Facebook in the office network like they should have, that will be very helpful.

:sarcasm:

Then again, since i am dealing with some overseas developers, take out facebook or skype, we can't move ahead.

The overseas teams are fond of chatting, and not fond of con-calls ..

Yah, one team = Facebook Chat
Another Team = Skype Chat

[the lynx]

Yah, one team = Facebook Chat

That's the most ridiculous means of internal communication I've ever heard of.

My former company used MSN Messenger and it didn't bond well with my no-colleague-on-IM policy initially.

[zzm9980]

Yah, one team = Facebook Chat

That's the most ridiculous means of internal communication I've ever heard of.

It is, but sadly you can't rely on many (most?) employees to have common sense about this shit, which is why they block Facebook. I'm sure many SMEs really are petty and feel their employees are children (and they may be correct!) who need their time patrolled, but for lots of companies it is solely to limit the damage caused by data leaks. The company I work for does not restrict Facebook, but many of our off-shore vendors (Indian sweatshops) do. I'm pretty sure if they did not, you would see developers posting code on each others walls with the privacy set to 'Global'.

A company I previously worked at had a fraud investigation helpdesk for credit card transactions. The geniuses there would communicate with coworkers about various cases via un-encrypted Yahoo messenger even though their coworkers were in the same room. This includes sending full details of customers and their credit card numbers.

[Wd40]

Yeah, my previous company in India too was a niche microsoft techonologies consulting boutique firm(not the crappy SME!) and they used MSN chat for internal communication, because its a Microsoft consulting company There were plans though to move to office communicator. Not sure whether that happened or nor.