‘After 25 years, this is the thank you?’: Singapore woman outraged after father was put on a PIP following decades of service

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean woman has shared her outrage after her father, who dedicated 25 years to the same company, allegedly suffered multiple “mental breakdowns” after being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP).

Writing on Reddit on Wednesday (Aug 5), she said her father had spent nearly half his life helping to build the company. He joined when he was earning around S$2,000 a month and stayed for decades, never chasing promotions or getting involved in office politics.

“He just wanted to do his job well and provide for his family,” she wrote, describing him as an honest, hardworking man whose daily routine revolved almost entirely around work.

According to her, everything changed when his current manager informed him that his work output was “not meeting expectations” and placed him on a PIP.

“The company says they aren’t firing him. Instead, they’re putting him on a PIP for the next few months. He’s also been told that if he fails it, there’ll be no severance package. If he resigns instead? Also no severance. To top it off, he’s worried he won’t even be able to join certain competing companies because of restrictions tied to his employment.”

To make matters worse, she claimed there were no alternative full-time roles available within the company.

“So it’s either stay in the BDM role and survive the PIP. Or resign.”

“They’ve also told him the expectations are extremely high, and from what he’s been told, the PIP doesn’t exactly feel like a genuine chance to improve. So after 25 years, this is the thank you?”

Adding to her frustration, she said her father had been told the company planned to replace him with two junior employees.

“Imagine dedicating a quarter of a century to one company only to feel like you’re just another cost on a spreadsheet once you’re no longer seen as profitable enough.”

She said the ordeal has devastated her father, who still cares deeply about the company despite everything that has happened.

“He genuinely loves the company and the work he does. That’s the part that breaks my heart. He still wants to be a good employee in a place that no longer seems to value him.”

Seeking advice, she asked fellow Reddit users whether PIPs are genuinely designed to help employees improve or have become little more than a corporate “countdown to the exit.”

“Has anyone else in Singapore experienced something like this?”

“Loyalty in the modern age has no value”

As heartbreaking as it was to hear, many Singaporean Redditors told the post author that her father was unlikely to make it through the PIP. Rather than pinning their hopes on a positive outcome, they urged him to treat the performance improvement period as an opportunity to begin searching for a new job.

One commenter wrote, “Unfortunately, the only thing your dad can do is use this period to interview for other jobs. Take small solace in the fact that he is essentially being paid to interview (a paid interview period). It is unlikely he will pass the PIP unless someone from the senior leadership team steps in.”

Another shared a similarly bleak view, writing, “PIP is just a way for companies to fire employees without compensation. Chances are slim, and even lodging unfair dismissal with MOM or the union may not help. The best is probably to actively look out for a job and resign on the last day of PIP?”

A third added, “Loyalty in the modern age has no value, unfortunately. But damn, hats off to your dad for working in the same company for 25 years. That’s almost as long as I’ve lived.”

In other news, a 23-year-old woman is wondering whether she’s overreacting after a male colleague, about 10 years older than her, allegedly continued messaging her even after she told him he had crossed her personal boundaries and asked to keep their relationship strictly professional.

According to her post on the r/asksg forum, the man works in another team within the same department and is part of the lunch group she occasionally joins.

Read more: Woman says male colleague 10 years older kept contacting her despite being asked to stop; netizens urge her to report him