‘Never outshine the master’: Singaporeans reveal the unwritten rules of surviving at work

SINGAPORE: A Singaporean recently started a Reddit thread asking others to share the “unwritten rules of workplace survival that nobody teaches in school.”

To kick off the discussion, he shared one lesson that completely changed how he viewed working life after an internship. In his experience, doing great work only gets someone about 30% of the way there.  The other 70%, he said, comes down to “visibility” and perception.

He explained that someone could be the hardest worker in the room, consistently delivering results and putting in the extra effort, but still lose out if the right people never notice.

Meanwhile, someone who does less but knows how to network, speak up, and make his contributions visible may end up getting the promotion instead.

Curious to see whether others had learned similar lessons, he asked fellow Redditors: “What’s a hard truth lesson about navigating professional life that you learned the difficult way?”

Be indispensable

One Redditor said career progression isn’t just about working hard. He argued that employees need to become so valuable that the company would struggle if they suddenly left.

“To promote, you need to make yourself be indispensable to the company. Basically, if you decide to quit today, they cannot complete anything without you, and your boss’s boss knows this.” 

He added, “In my experience, if you just wait and hope your boss will fight for you, it will never happen. You need to make sure one level up knows you are the one doing the job and not your boss.”

Don’t stand out too much

Another Redditor offered a lesson about office hierarchy. He advised employees not to outshine their bosses, explaining that openly proving someone senior is wrong, even with good intentions, can backfire.

“Never outshine the master,” he wrote. “Obey what the higher-ups say even if you know you can do better. Bosses are hired to make decisions above your level. Trying to undermine their power can lead to a hard time at work.”

Socialise more

A third Redditor disagreed with the common advice that “colleagues are not friends” and that employees should simply do their job and go home.

According to him, someone with that kind of mindset will end up being “hated” by colleagues and remain stuck in the same position for years.

“When I say ‘people skills,’ it’s not just about being able to talk well or learning to be visible. It’s about getting people to be comfortable with you, trust your ability to deliver, and for you to be able to empathise with people’s feelings and needs,” he explained. 

“At the end of the day, just like you and me, everyone is just human, trying to get through the day. If you’re able to bring positivity, crack jokes, lighten the mood, make people feel like they can be themselves at the workplace, you will be extremely likeable, and you’ll have lots of soft power at work.”

Be street smart

Someone else mentioned that workplace success isn’t determined by academic achievements alone. In his view, having common sense, being street smart, and knowing how to read the room can be just as important.

Drawing from his experience in the army, he said he had met many people from junior colleges, including officers, who were academically capable but struggled with everyday situations and social awareness. 

According to him, the difference was often obvious, as some lacked basic common sense and found it difficult to pick up on social cues or adapt to different situations.

“They were super blur and don’t know a lot of usual common sense things, and they don’t know how to read the room. I felt sad for them and felt sorry to compare but it’s really really obvious.”

Other workplace lessons

Many commenters also shared shorter pieces of advice they wished they had learned earlier in their careers.

Among the more popular tips were: don’t assume other people are less capable than they seem, and think twice before oversharing details about your personal life at work because office gossip travels fast.

Others suggested learning how the company really works behind the scenes, including its structural or administrative weaknesses, as that knowledge could prove useful one day. 

And perhaps the most repeated reminder of all was not to let work become your entire life.  Jobs can be replaced, they said, but family can’t.

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