Overworked desktop engineer says boss told him to ‘turn in his resignation letter if he wasn’t happy being at work’

SINGAPORE: A desktop engineer recently shared on social media that his team lead told him, in a rather threatening tone, that he should just “turn in his resignation letter if he wasn’t happy being at work”.

In a post on the r/asksg forum on Wednesday (Oct 29), he explained that the confrontation took place after his team lead found out he had reached out to someone higher up in the company for help. The team lead accused him of breaking the hierarchy and took the action as a personal betrayal.

“He [the team lead] basically got pissed off at me,” the desktop engineer said. “He said I ‘broke the trust that took 1 year to build’ because of my actions. Apparently, the one tiny little message I sent to his higher-up got him REALLY riled up for whatever reason.”

The engineer added that he only contacted a higher-up because his workload had become unmanageable and was severely affecting his mental health. 

“I couldn’t keep up,” he wrote. “I kept asking for a transfer, but the team lead said no, and my mental health kept deteriorating. I nearly even passed out from a panic attack, but the lead didn’t really care.”

“Just LIE FLAT; don’t resign.”

The post quickly caught the attention of other Redditors, who shared their own perspectives and advice in the comments.

One Redditor suggested that office politics could be involved. “Maybe the guy above your team lead doesn’t like him? Your team lead’s full of crap, honestly. What trust nonsense? That’s so corpo-speak.” 

“Then again, it might be that you’re either underperforming or you’re not being honest with your team lead. Without your background context, it’s hard to figure out what’s the best option for you.”

Another commenter advised, “Stay as long as you need to build up your resume, but I would not recommend a permanent stay there. I also had a toxic work environment and colleagues who were slacking or coming in late, which was the absolute breaking point for me before I left.”

A third said, “Just LIE FLAT; don’t resign. Clock in on time, leave on time. Collect pay and find a job.”

A fourth added, “Don’t resign without a job lined up; the market is very bad now.”

In other news, a woman took to an online forum to share that her boyfriend has never once initiated a date or treated her to a meal throughout their nine-month relationship.

Posting on the r/SGexams subreddit, the woman prefaced her story by stating that she has no issue spending money on her partner and has always been generous in their relationship.

“Before I start and before y’all come at me, I want to share that I HAVE and am very willing to spend money on my BF,” she wrote.

Read more: ‘Is this SG men these days?’ — Woman says her BF never once initiated a date or treated her