After reading the previous 2 pages here, I have some advice/information for the younger ones (<35 years old). These are also purely based on my observations over the last 15-20 years, so please feel free to disagree or add on.

There was a period of time where we were LACKING teachers (sounds totally incredulous in our current climate haha) and recruitment numbers were crazy high. Hence the bar was much much lower and it was quite easy to get hired. I even heard from a HR personnel that a lump sum was paid to attract new hires. It was also assumed that this large group of new hires had less impressive portfolios. This group of people are probably mostly Gen X, or even boomers (for mid career hires).

Fast forward to this current period - from 2015 onwards, many of the above-mentioned group are currently KPs, STs or GEO5s. For those 15-20 years, this group enjoyed good annual increments, adjustments every 3-4 years and fast promotions (once every 2 to 3 years). In fact, new KP positions were created not only to handle new forms of workload, but also to create positions for this group of people to progress. A KP said that even the ST track quickly became overdeveloped and saturated.

As for the GEO5s who did not make it to KPship or STship, they hit their salary ceilings very early. Many do not bother about increments or performance grades anymore, because there is hardly any point to it since they have reached their ceilings. They will never resign either, because their age and skillset are no longer attractive to other employers. Staying on to just do minimal work is the ideal retirement route. Hence, the trend of them rejecting extra workload began.

Where do these extra workload go to? Newly hired GEO2s and 3s. Hence, the bar for good performance and promotion started rising. If you want to progress faster, you have to shoulder more workload from the school and your RO.

What to do now that there are too many GEO5s and higher? System has become too top heavy. Promotion rates decrease. Annual increments decrease to slow down people from hitting the ceiling too quickly (in 2020, the reason for this was COVID. But as of today, it seems to be silently made permanent).

What to do now that student population is falling and schools are merging? Slash recruitment, raise the bar for new hires. If you wish to resign, no one will dissuade you and it is processed much more quickly (unlike in the past).

At this point, you realise that many issues regarding performance, promotions or workload is no longer just a school-wide (localised) phenomenon, but have evolved to become system-wide.

How do many exhausted GEO2s and 3s respond? Reject extra workload as well. Quiet quit. Resign and look for jobs with better work-life balance. There is a reason why statistically, the turnover rate for younger officers is much higher. Regardless of age and stage of life, your mental and physical health matters. Not only for yourself, but for your loved ones too.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not telling you what to do and I'm not trying to blame any particular group of people here. But situations like COVID, cost cutting, rolling out of many new education policies within a short period, tech boom, quiet quitting, work-life balance and sudden inflation have all clashed between the ministry, the older group of officers and the younger group. A 3 way tug of war, each vying for their own self-interests...But assuming nothing changes and these continue, it's rather obvious who will lose out eventually by staying in the system...

To the younger officers, it can only be bad timing and bad luck. Take care of yourselves