SINGAPORE: Is Singapore’s work culture so unforgiving that even seasoned professionals can’t last a year? One man who returned after five years of working overseas said he burnt out in just 10 months after joining a local company.
“The gaslighting and pressure to OT (overtime) are fairly common here,” he said. “I’ve been trying very hard but keep falling sick and have developed sleeping issues, chest pains, etc., but I still try my best.”
When he eventually raised these concerns with his supervisor, the response, he said, was matter-of-fact. He was told that this was simply how things were done.
“They told me pretty much it’s the culture, and the hiring/resignation rate here is tolerated. They don’t have time to care about this as priority is on projects and revenue recognition,” he continued.
The man added that before joining the company, he had been assured that proper training would be provided.
However, once he started work, he found that no one was assigned to mentor him, and he was largely expected to learn independently by referring to technical documents.
Unfortunately, what this local is experiencing does not appear to be confined to a single workplace.
Similar accounts of burnout and dissatisfaction with work culture continue to surface across offices in Singapore.
One of The Independent Singapore users shared: “This is why I left Singapore. The work culture in Singapore is toxic, to say the least. I don’t understand the need to race to stay late at work.”
“Might as well just bring your bed and kitchen into the office. Don’t have a life. There is such a thing as work-life balance. Apparently, it doesn’t exist in Singapore.”
Singapore is one of the most burnt-out cities in the world
In 2025, workspace solutions provider Instant Offices reported that Singapore is the second most burnt-out city in the world, ranking just behind London and ahead of Melbourne in third place.
The study found that Singapore recorded an average of 1,011 monthly Google searches for terms such as “burnout symptoms,” “how to cope with burnout”, “am I burnt out?” and “signs of burnout at work”. This was lower than London’s 2,323 searches but higher than Melbourne’s 948.
Within Asia, Hong Kong was the next city to appear on the list, ranking 14th with just 175 average monthly searches.
These findings align with Gallup’s State of the Workplace 2025 report, which ranked Singapore the second-lowest in employee engagement across Southeast Asia. The report also showed that 61 per cent of employees in Singapore reported feeling burnt out.
By contrast, neighbouring countries, like the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, were found to have more collaborative and supportive workplace cultures.
More recently, ManpowerGroup’s Global Talent Barometer 2026, which surveyed 515 workers in Singapore, found that 53 per cent experienced significant daily stress, while 72 per cent reported feeling burnt out.
The most common causes cited were “stress (34%), job insecurity (24%), heavy workloads (28%)”.
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