‘Is this how Singaporean bosses think?’: Foreign employee fears job cuts after CEO touts AI
Businessman standing next to window
SINGAPORE: A foreign employee has expressed concern over his company's future after a newly hired Singaporean CEO reportedly made several unsettling remarks about how artificial intelligence (AI) could change the way businesses operate.
In an anonymous post on Reddit's r/singaporejobs, the employee said, “[The CEO] keeps saying that Singaporean companies would rather fire an entire team and leave just one person to do everyone's work. He also claims that building a website takes just a minute now because of AI.”
The employee acknowledged that AI was already changing the workplace and that some jobs would inevitably be affected. However, hearing the company's top executive speak so casually about eliminating entire teams had left him feeling rather uneasy about his own job security.
“I know AI is changing things, and I'm not pretending that jobs won't be affected. But hearing your CEO casually talk about replacing entire teams like it's the most obvious thing in the world is honestly quite stressful,” he wrote.
His concerns were made worse by his financial commitments. The employee said he had recently bought a car and still had two years of instalments to pay off. “The thought of suddenly losing my job while having those bills to pay is terrifying.”
Seeking some perspective from others working in Singapore, he asked whether this attitude towards staffing was becoming more common among local employers.
“For those working in Singapore, is this genuinely how companies are starting to think about staffing? Are employers actually looking to replace entire teams with AI, or is my CEO just trying to scare everyone into doing more with less?
“The job market already feels brutal. I really don't need this kind of anxiety on top of it…”
‘Don't quit. Wait for the severance.’
In the comments, several users shared they’ve heard similar things come out from their bosses.
One shared, “I don't know if this is common personally, but our manager did say something similar like ‘we will be letting go of 3 people in the team’... and then ended it there. I don't know how he expects us to work diligently after that crazy comment, but yeah, it seems like many Singapore bosses are indeed low EQ and IQ.”
Another remarked, “All tech CEOs are now like that. The last one being exposed to the public was the CEO of Proton, and he won't be the last one. Just embrace that there is no stability in tech jobs anymore.”
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A third added, “It’s a tech bro thing. AI psychosis and delusional. People who build or work with LLMs know its limitations but the whole damn industry is sold on AI koyok. The most impressionable ppl are the non-technical pretending to be tech executives - those are the worst.”
As for the employee's immediate predicament, another user advised him not to resign just yet. Rather than walking away voluntarily, they suggested waiting to see whether the company would proceed with the job cuts and offer severance pay.
“Don't quit. Wait for the severance. Even if the AI doesn't work, this guy will find something else to undermine his employees.”/TISG