Every time National Day Rally finishes, the government acts like giving more paternity and maternity leave is going to magically boost our TFR. Don’t get me wrong, policy-wise, it sounds amazing on paper. More weeks off, more co-funding, extra support for young parents.
But can we talk about the massive disconnect between what MOM/PMO thinks is happening versus the actual reality on the ground in local corporate culture?
Government can mandate 100 weeks of leave if they want, but the moment you actually clear your entitlement, the “indirect penalties” start rolling in fast and furious:
- The “Invisible” Performance Review Knock: Nobody will explicitly say “We gave you a C grade because you took 4 weeks of Paternity Leave.” Instead, it becomes “Oh, your output this year was slightly less impactful compared to your peers.” Obviously my output was less, I was taking care of a newborn for a month! How do you compete on KPI metrics when the benchmark assumes 365 days of uninterrupted OT?
- The Coverage Trap: Most SME/MNC teams are squeezed so lean that when someone goes on extended leave, there is zero temporary headcount cover. Your work just gets dumped on your team members. So when you come back, not only do you feel guilty because your colleagues are burnt out, but you also suffer the subtle cold shoulder from your manager who had to “firefight” while you were gone.
- Out of Sight, Passed Over for Promotion: High-visibility projects get handed out while you are on leave. By the time you come back, the office politics train has moved on. The person who stayed back every night till 9pm gets the key client, while you get assigned to maintenance work because HR deems you “in a busy life stage.”
- The “Flexible” Expectation: You are technically on parental leave, but your work WhatsApp keeps buzzing. If you reply, you ruin your leave. If you don’t reply, you are labeled “uncontactable” or “not a team player.”
The government keeps throwing money and statutory days at the problem, but until MOM starts cracking down on toxic corporate evaluation frameworks that penalise people for using their legal entitlements, people are still going to be terrified to start a family.
Are you guys seeing this in your companies too, or am I just unlucky with a toxic boss? How are parents in corporate SG even surviving this whole “pro-family policy vs anti-family culture” tug-of-war?