Singaporean PMET dismissed from bank job after 20 years of service, believes dismissal due to ‘salary too high’ and not because of performance issues

A Singaporean man believes his high salary was the reason he was dismissed from his job at a local bank despite retaining a permanent position for over two decades.

The man, who wished to stay anonymous, reached out to The Independent Singapore to share his “sad story as a local Singaporean PMET (professional, managerial, executive and technical job categories).”

The individual believes his recent dismissal was not related to performance issues “as he was not aware of any foreign colleagues getting dismissed even for major incidents.”

He cited human error examples such as island-wide service disruptions and major IT failures, leading to significant losses for the company.

“My ex foreigner new citizen supervisor actually told me my salary was too high and close to what he was earning as one of the reasons,” said the man.

He also highlighted having reported cases of workplace bullying, harassment and “immense office politics” to senior management.

On one occasion, the man informed his teammates he needed to step out of the office for less than half an hour to pick up his baby from a nearby childcare centre, as his wife suddenly had to work late. He ended up receiving a warning email from his team leader, even though the 18-minute interval was an emergency and not a daily occurrence.

When asked if he had raised the issue to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the man said:

“The sentiments among the older jobless PMETs, security guards, taxi drivers, Grab drivers, food delivery workers I have spoken to are that junior MOM Officers and Company HR are powerless and usually side with the foreign talents…junior managers push the blame to the local staffs, who are generally more capable but less ambitious, less vocal in the workplace.”

“Resulting in, we become the first choice easy victims in office politics, especially when it comes to reducing headcounts by the Big Big Foreign Bosses in the Boardrooms.”

He noted that locals would “leave quietly” to find lower-paying/lower-position jobs. It’s a vicious cycle of “more and more local PMETs replaced by cheaper but less capable, less experienced foreign staffs.” /TISG

Former bank employee says: “I would advise all Singaporeans to forget about applying for any PMET job. Become a hawker, Grab driver, food delivery, security guard, cleaner”