Is this normal in the working world or should I find another company?

Hi guys, so 2 years into my first job and I realised things aren’t as rosy as I thought it would be. I know working world would be a cesspool of shit but my expectations were grossly overpositive.

Poor quality of work

So, we are an engineering company. Considered SME here but our parent company is in China. Those in Engineering would understand that there is no “agar agar” in Engineering. If there’s a limitation in the specs, say maximum load of maximum length of this beam, it has to be clearly stated. So here is where the problem starts. Whenever we ask China side for some specs, different people give us different specs. Its frustrating to be honest. So what I do ? I pull all the people who told me different things into one group and ask them collectively…And got told off for making trouble. At the end of the day, no one can provide a definitive answer to this, and many questions I have asked.

Its really frustrating and seriously goes against how I work. For me, its very simple. I see a problem, I fix the problem, I go home. But in this case, its really…frustrating. I see the problem but no one wants to address it. I was told this is quite normal in the working world but i really don’t know. Is it ? Is it really ? Or is this how SME / China companies work ?

No honestly / communication

I really laugh at the way we do things here. So we are supposed to market our parent company’s products and sell them overseas, basically an overseas branch. BUT, now here’s where it gets interesting. When we request for specs and important stuff like CAD Drawing, they dowan give. So our boss decides to use what we have and modify to make it ours. And cos of that, the end product ends up to be different from our parent company’s product. And the boss likes to go around promising customer this and that but when he comes back and tells the Engineering team we’re all like, bruh you got discuss with us first ?

Like, the cycle is like that. Find new customer -> propose a novel product that we don’t have -> come back tell Engineering team to do -> Engineering feedback that not feasible -> Boss say China can do -> Engineering reminds boss our product is heavily modified -> Boss gets angry

Colleagues that only know how to talk but not listen

Oh boy this one. My office is filled with people that like to think that they are always in the right. No matter how much you try to get them to see another opinion, they insist they are right. I’m not saying I’m right but would it kill you to listen to others? Nowadays I see someone doing it wrong I won’t tell them. Just sit by and watch them burn lol.

Now I’ve been asked this question many times, why am I still here ?

Main reason is that is quite lepak (cos everyone don’t care about all these specs lol) and more importantly gives me the extra time and emotional resource to try to solve the current problems I have in life right now… mainly mental health issues. I see the company as having no future, no chance to succeed, I acknowledge that. But so am I. I also gave up on myself already. So this place suits me well.

Even so I’m getting real tired of this shit hole. I just got an increment, and a pretty big one at that, and am waiting at least a few months so I can use it as leverage for better pay.

Maybe I just needed to rant on Monday, thanks…

How do you all do quiet quitting?

Just for context, I’m an NSF who is a storeman.

For the past 1 year that I’ve been in NS, I’ve always tried to do things to the best of my ability (foolish of me, I know) and took over the duties of other NSFs whenever they go on MC.

However, there will always be a bunch of NSFs in my unit who will take at least 3 days of MC every bloody week.

The thing that really pisses me off is that I always have to take over their duties and basically work from book in timing to book out timing. This happens every fking time they go on mc. What were they doing while on MC? Going out and having fun while I’m slogging away in camp

I tried studying stuff in camp but I’m just so busy up to the point that i dont have the time to study, or I’m just tired af. I don’t really want to ck and go on MC for weeks on end cause my supervisors are really nice (they even gave me a few off days because of my work).

Can I have some suggestions from yall? I feel quite stressed out on those days because of this

Netizens’ comments

1. Not a bad idea to have a chat with your commanders about how you’re feeling. If they are understanding, I’m sure they’d know what to do.
   Otherwise, do try to do the bare minimum that would let you do what you want, whilst also doing you are supposed to.
2. I’m an ASA and I feel your pain man. It seems like your Superiors are nice though. The fact that they give you Offs for the work done. For me, I don’t get any offs despite booking out late on multiple occasions to get certain tasks completed.
   Because I was also stupid and foolish to do things to the best of my ability, I suffered 2 mental breakdowns till the point that I went nuts in the office. Threw stuff and yelled vulgarities.
   If you’re just not feeling it and you need a break, just take MC bro. Nobody is going to fault you and don’t even feel bad about doing it. Prioritise yourself first. Just take the MC but of course don’t go and take MC for 3 – 4 days consecutively
3. Been there before, brother. Try talking to your direct superiors about it, and if nothing changes, go up the chain of command to your DY or something. See if you can have them arrange house visits to those ck people. If they really are out having fun while they’re supposed to be on MC, they’ll sure kena some punishment one. Might even go straight to DB iirc.

Circles overcharged my elderly parents almost $600 and offered a $40 goodwill refund

Has anybody fallen for this before and could advice us?

Before I moved overseas, I ported both my elderly parents into Circles from M1. The offer at that time was $18 for 50GB of data. It worked pretty awesome for the first couple of months, everything was in order. I checked the bill and it was truly $18/month.

Recently, I came back and found out that after 6 months for my mum and 1 year for my dad, they were charged an extra $20 per month for unlimited data. I asked Circles what’s up with it and they said that it’s an automatic subscription which requires the consumer to opt out of. It seems that they sneaked this in to their “no-contract plan” at sign up and placed the burden of disputing it on the consumer.

Naturally, given that my parents use an average of 3GB a month, I told them there was no need for this and requested an adjustment. Months of this subscription came up to around $600 in total. They offered $40 as a goodwill refund… Do we have any options at all?

Netizens’ comments

1. Not normally. Always read the T&C of the contract. For circles in particular their prices include a $10 “discount” for porting in your number, which is only valid for 1 year. Scummy but not illegal.
2. Unfortunately this was probably sneaked into the T&Cs in the service agreement that I assume was legitimately signed. If your parents are illiterate you might have some kind of legal recourse but the time and effort taken to pursue the $600 will not be worth it at all.
   Posting your account on IG / Facebook / TikTok and tagging Circles’ accounts would be the more viable option – they might cave in to the negative publicity and offer a full refund.
3. Auto subscription should be made illegal!
4. Depending on the facts, including in particular whether you reasonably could have known of the extra charge, this may or may not amount to an “unfair practice” under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act 2003. Try complaining to CASE, and/or the Consumer and Competition Commission of Singapore.

Weird (scam?) call

I had this weird call on Friday afternoon.

A guy with a thick Malaysian accent called my number using a local Singaporean number (no +65) and said he was my friend, had changed this number and asked me to guess who he was.

He was able to identify me by name. After refusing to identify himself and playing this game of asking me who he was, he sighed, and hang up. While I do have Malaysian friends, business associates and former classmates, this voice wasn’t familiar at all and I know my contacts won’t waste time on this sort of behaviour.

Wtf was that all about?

Netizens’ comments

1. he got your name by keying your number into paynow.
   next time you get this kind of scam you say ” oh alex ah long time no see!”
   then he will say “ya la…im alex, how are you man?
   then you say” i dont know who is alex”
2. Probably one of those that will name themselves whatever you remember them as then try to ask you to lend them money after a while
3. I got the same call as well… after asking him 3 times and him telling me to guess who is he, i decided to ask him back “ so what is my name?” He froze and hung up.
   If he really knows my name ( as my friends experienced with their encounters) i am prepared to randomly drop a name and when he says yes he is that person, i will ask him “when u planning to return me my $1000 ? Look for you very long already..”
4. Scam. I kena before also. He got your no from some sources so he knows your name. He will refuse to tell u who he is and probably he is waiting for u to blurp out a name, then he claim to be that person
   Another variant is he will tell u all kinds of stuffs like Macham he updating u like that. I dunno what follows this, but probably he is trying to impersonate someone u know also