SINGAPORE: A woman, who’s still adjusting to her new role as a mum, vented on social media about how “some aunties” have shamed her for using the hybrid policy and working from home on some days.
In a post on the NUSWhispers Facebook page, the woman said that these “aunties are now approaching retirement” and refuse to work from home, despite having the option to.
She explained, “They love to come to the office daily, and to make it worse, they come in way before the official start time and leave way after the official end time. Even though the company has a hybrid work policy, they don’t want to WFH and they make you look bad for wanting to work from home. Like, please, the birth rate is already so damn low.”
The woman went on to explain that working from home is very important to her because she is responsible for taking care of her baby at night, and working from home means she gets an extra hour of sleep in the morning.
However, the aunties are making it way harder for her. She also noted that other departments in the office have already embraced and enjoyed the hybrid policy — only their department hasn’t, because of the aunties’ mentality.
She said, “Even my boss who supports hybrid work is now forced to come into the office because these people created this culture of coming in daily for no good reason and are spoiling things for everyone. Please think of others. We’re already one of the most stressed countries in the world. Birth rate is so low and it’s small things like this that really make a difference in making people want to have kids.”
She continued, “You got nothing to do at home and your whole life revolves around the office? You can bring your bed and pillow here and stay — nobody will say anything. But just don’t dig your nose into others’. Can spend hours chit-chatting with other aunties in the office, super inefficient, take hours to finish one task — and just because you’re in the office doesn’t mean you’re actually getting the job done. It just means your brain can only function in one place.”
“You do your thing, and they do theirs, loh.”
In the comments, many netizens advised the woman to ignore the negativity and continue prioritising what works best for her and her child.
One netizen wrote, “Why bother with what the aunties say unless they have a say in your appraisal? The crows will always caw, and you can’t make it stop, and also you shouldn’t go down to that level too.”
Another commented, “Just make sure your work is getting done in a timely manner and the bosses know about it! Every workplace has these useless toxic gossip queens lol.”
A third suggested that she request a transfer to another department, writing,“You mentioned that your boss managing your department who supports hybrid work is now ‘forced to come into the office’ because of the colleagues you were originally complaining about — how about requesting for a switch of department since your boss failed to convince the rest of his team to embrace hybrid work?”
However, not all responses were sympathetic. A number of commenters criticised the woman for judging the aunties. One said, “That is your problem, leh. You like WFH, and they like coming to the office. You do your thing, and they do theirs, loh. You don’t get to control other people.”
A fourth expressed, “The company rules don’t change just because you want to WFH….Keep your entitled behaviour to yourself.”
In other news, a Singaporean jobseeker took to social media to share that he’s been having second thoughts about attending a job interview after discovering numerous negative reviews about the company online.
According to his post on a popular forum, he had initially been excited about the opportunity. However, after digging into the company’s background, he found multiple complaints about toxic leadership, poor work-life balance, micromanagement, lack of manpower, and high staff turnover.
Featured image by freepik (for illustration purposes only)