“I feel like I am not needed there anymore” — Employee says his boss keeps asking when he plans to resign

SINGAPORE: While there are plenty of subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways to tell if your boss isn’t happy with you or your work performance—like being micromanaged or being excluded from meetings—one Singaporean employee gets a shockingly very direct message.

His boss is flat-out asking when he plans to resign from the agency.

In his post on r/askSingapore, the employee shared that he previously had an overall good relationship with his boss and teammates. Unfortunately, the air between them suddenly changed, and he had no idea why.

“Recently my boss started asking me if I am leaving or staying, I thought it was just a formality that they are asking me. But I noticed that it kept getting frequent, they started asking me in front of my colleagues,” the employee explained.

To make matters worse, his boss has also started embarrassing him in front of others and making sarcastic remarks like, “If he stays with us, we can give him a reward.”

Additionally, during a one-on-one discussion about work, his boss mentioned it would be easier to hand over his tasks if he left now. “He doesn’t want to assign me more work,” the employee added.

Just last Friday, his boss even asked one of his colleagues if ‘he (the employee would be leaving or staying at the end of the month.’ “I feel like I am not needed there anymore,” the employee lamented.

“The thing is, I didn’t do anything and I fulfilled every work that they assigned me,” the employee added.

The employee clarified that he never told his boss he was planning to leave or intended to do so. Even when his boss asked him the first time, he directly replied with a firm “no.”

As these incidents had taken a toll on his mental and emotional well-being, the employee sought advice from other Singaporeans in the online community.

“Ask your boss straight up if your performance has been unsatisfactory.”

In the comments section, several Singaporean Redditors are convinced that his boss is deliberately trying to push him out of the position to make room for a favoured replacement, possibly someone the boss already knows.

Meanwhile, others suspect that someone from within his own team might be spreading rumours and badmouthing him behind his back to get in the boss’s good graces.

One Redditor said, “Be careful there might be bad colleagues sabo-ing you too. to increase their chances of promotion or increment while stepping on you.

If you are not resigning just make your stand clear to your boss not your colleagues, without a clear answer your boss will lean towards the rumor.”

Another commented, “Why do I feel like there is some misunderstanding or someone might have spread the idea that you are planning to resign? That is why your boss keeps asking.”

A few also encouraged him to schedule a one-on-one session with his boss and directly ask about the issue.

One Redditor expressed, “I hate it when they do passive aggressive approach. Have a direct 1 on 1 with your boss. Ask him about the nature of his repetitive question.” Another suggested, “Ask your boss straight up if your performance has been unsatisfactory. Heck, ask for a peer review.

Then put your own cards on the table and lodge a complaint with HR for harassment. If they give you trouble for it. Leave. No amount of money is worth this kind of problems.”

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