‘Love my job, hate my boss’: Singapore worker considers quitting despite good benefits
Side view of businesswoman leaning her head against glass door
SINGAPORE: A Singaporean worker has confessed that she is close to walking away from a job she genuinely loves, simply because dealing with her boss has become an increasingly exhausting affair.
Despite being happy with her work, office location, and benefits, the worker said her boss’s management style has left her feeling demotivated and questioning whether she has a future in the company.
Seeking advice from others who might be in the same boat, she shared her frustrations in a post on the r/singaporejobs subreddit on Tuesday (Oct 20), asking how people cope with a boss they dislike when almost everything else about their job is good.
The worker explained that she is employed by a government-linked company (GLC), where her boss has been working for 15 years and holds a certain level of seniority.
“I love my job, my work location, and the benefits, but I just can’t stand working under my boss,” she wrote.
“I think she’s been in our team for about 5–6 years now, and honestly, the whole team seems damn sian working under her. I’m coming up to 5 years in this job, and I’m starting to feel like I’m not going anywhere with her as my boss. It feels like she’s just here until retirement, and there’s no real motivation or leadership coming from her.”
She added that her boss is the type who “constantly questions things but doesn’t really manage or guide the team.”
“There’s a lot of questioning, but very little actual leadership. It’s draining to work under someone who seems to scrutinise everything but doesn’t provide direction or help the team grow.”
“I know I shouldn’t assume things about her personal life, but sometimes I wonder if she’s just settled into her comfort zone and has no intention of changing anything.”
Despite her frustrations, the employee stressed that leaving was not something she particularly wanted to do.
Ending her post, she asked fellow workers: “Anyone else in a similar situation? How do you cope with a boss you dislike when almost everything else about the job is good? Do you just learn to live with it, or does it eventually get to a point where you have to leave?”
‘Maybe in her own way she's trying to guide the team’
In the comments, many advised the woman not to let one difficult boss drive her out of a job she otherwise loves. With a good work location and decent benefits, they felt it would be rather a shame to throw it all away over one person.
One wrote, “You just live with it. The job market is so uncertain now; who knows if she will be there for 1 or 2 or 10 years? And you may get another offer or department transfer opportunity. There’s no such thing as a perfect job anyway.”
Another shared, “Exactly the same situation as me. Love everything except the boss. I decided it's not worth it to sacrifice everything just for that 1 person.”
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A third said, “This may be an unpopular opinion, but maybe in her own way she's trying to guide the team and help the team grow? I once had a similar boss, and I really resented him at the time. But now, looking back, I could understand some of what he did. There's some method to his madness. And it makes me wonder if there are more lessons to be learned behind the rest of the stuff, which I still don't understand to this day.”
In other news, a struggling jobseeker has appealed to Singaporeans online for advice after his ageing mother—the family's breadwinner, who earns only around S$1,500 a month—was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.
Taking to the r/askSingapore subreddit, the man said his father, who has been out of work for three years following a foot injury, had effectively “abandoned” the family.