Exhausted woman lying on desk while using laptop late at night, depicting job hunting fatigue.
'Staying in a bad job or quitting without another offer and being unemployed': Singapore woman who realises she's in a 'bad fit' job asks which is worse
SINGAPORE: After realising she’s in a “pretty bad fit” job, a 23-year-old Singapore worker was prompted to ask others online which is worse: “staying in a bad job or quitting without another offer and being unemployed.”
She said she’s working at a family-owned small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), which she said had “poor management, nepotism, questionable fairness, a lot of unreasonable expectations, and random responsibilities outside what I expected from the role.”
On r/singaporejobs, she wrote: “I’ve become very disengaged even if I still give my best every day. I’ve been going back and forth about resigning since my fourth month in, but decided to stay because I had hope that things will get better and also I didn’t want to quit so early on when it’s my first job.”
She also said she had enough savings to quit without another offer, so finances were not really the issue. She explained that her main concern was her career and resume.
“If I stay until I secure another job, that realistically could take months. Alternatively, I could resign, take a short break, upskill and job hunt properly, but risk having an employment gap,” she said.
“I’m also aware of how exhausting and demoralising it can get to be unemployed even though to others it might seem like NEETs (people not in education, employment, or trainings) are doing nothing productive.”
Some commenters who acknowledged her “frustrating situation”, however, pointed out that quitting now doesn’t really guarantee she’ll find another job quickly. One commenter said, “But what is guaranteed is that you will be using your savings to sustain your daily needs.”
The commenter added, “You are still young, and if you don't have to pay bills for the house, then mental well-being takes more priority, I suppose.”
Another said, “I think find another job while being employed, bah.”
A third added, “OP, if I were you, just stay first and apply for jobs. Now it’s hard to get employment in this current economy. U can’t predict how many months or even years u can get employed again.”
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Commenters’ concerns come as some workers in the city-state are taking longer to find their next job.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in its Sept 21 labour market report that the share of retrenched residents who found work within six months dropped from 60.7% in Q1 to 54.9% in Q2.
This came as retrenchments rose from 3,830 in Q1 to 4,620 in Q2, the highest quarterly figure since Q4 2020.
Still, the 12-month re-entry rate edged up slightly from 69.4% to 69.8%. /TISG