IMDA (under MCI)

Is Elon Musk destroying Twitter? Not at all when compared to here.

LCH is really a legend, single-handedly pull down the entire IMDA and forced more than half the workforce to quit.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

hi all in IMDA currently, what is it like in emerging tech & foresight division / Infocomm policy in terms of culture? nice boss or team? or how about red tape?

asking as soon-to-be fresh grad who is job hunting

Please please avoid this dept (so many people quit that dept after a few weeks or 2-3 months!), and IMDA in general at all costs... don't even go near with a stick as a few glassdoor reviews said. the culture is super toxic.

super long hours of OT because the bosses don't know what their bosses want, so you end up spending many after office hours and weekends redoing work over and over again.

It feels so meaningless and sucks the life right out of you. I've witnessed all my favourite colleagues quit one by one. Eventually I left too. Seeing over 50% of the staff leave in less than a year is so demoralizing. (We watched the member count of the whatsapp group for a particular working group in IMDA dwindle by >50% from Jan-Jun 2022... from 120+ to 50+... that's how we knew how many people have left. IMDA never makes a public announcement when someone quits/leaves because WAY too many people leave, and they want to keep it on the down low.) Even some of the new assistant directors have resigned after less than a year.

Most of the staff who remain there are the type who are ok with doing meaningless work just to please the bosses... at the expense of their own health and mental well being. Sure the salary was pretty high, but totally not worth the trade off in well being in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

After working in IMDA for a couple of months, I am glad I left.

Most of the dynamic divisions mentioned have interesting stuff to work on, but be prepared for no life outside working 24-7 including weekends. This is due to the division directors not knowing what they want. You’ll be working on presentation files, uncommon u had more than 10 iterations before you realized you actually presenting the very first version. Bootlickers can survive well, management loves people who can talk their way through and smoke their way out.

Non-dynamic divisions like HR and Finance, that’s probably where you want to park yourself if you want to be lazy. Personnel from there rarely response immediately, some times take up to 1 week. They never take any initiatives and push any responsibilities back. Seems very political, good for people who love playing work place political game.

For anyone looking for doing real and good job, this is a depressing place to be.

seconding this comment. I've heard of directors scheduling weekly meetings on saturday from around 6-8pm+. One person I knew regularly worked till 3am+ daily and still showed up at 9am for work the next day. If you report this to the wrong people in HR, your identity could get revealed to your boss. Somehow this is ok in IMDA. Blows my mind.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Please please avoid this dept (so many people quit that dept after a few weeks or 2-3 months!), and IMDA in general at all costs... don't even go near with a stick as a few glassdoor reviews said. the culture is super toxic.

super long hours of OT because the bosses don't know what their bosses want, so you end up spending many after office hours and weekends redoing work over and over again.

It feels so meaningless and sucks the life right out of you. I've witnessed all my favourite colleagues quit one by one. Eventually I left too. Seeing over 50% of the staff leave in less than a year is so demoralizing. (We watched the member count of the whatsapp group for a particular working group in IMDA dwindle by >50% from Jan-Jun 2022... from 120+ to 50+... that's how we knew how many people have left. IMDA never makes a public announcement when someone quits/leaves because WAY too many people leave, and they want to keep it on the down low.) Even some of the new assistant directors have resigned after less than a year.

Most of the staff who remain there are the type who are ok with doing meaningless work just to please the bosses... at the expense of their own health and mental well being. Sure the salary was pretty high, but totally not worth the trade off in well being in my opinion.

To be fair, I think it largely depends on the division. The directors are able to dictate the culture and working habits of their own division to a certain extent, so if people find the culture toxic, it is likely that the director is not doing enough to shield their staff from the **** coming from above. There are more than 30 divisions in IMDA and the scope of work varies widely from industry development to regulation, so I'd say different people probably experienced different working environments. Staff survey has also shown that the working experience can be very different in different groups. As for the glassdoor reviews, I would say that only people frustrated will leave reviews, people satisfied or happy will not go on glassdoor to leave reviews. I am not from HR.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is Elon Musk destroying Twitter? Not at all when compared to here.

LCH is really a legend, single-handedly pull down the entire IMDA and forced more than half the workforce to quit.

Actually whether Elon Musk is destroying Twitter remains to be seen. Cutting such a large portion of the working force and Twitter still functioning means there was too much dead weight. The content regulation part is a bit iffy, but we have to see if he manages to get it right in the end.

As for LCH, I think he has right intentions but execution could have been better. Many ministries and agencies are stuck with their way of doing things for too long and sometimes its good to have a change. Many people in public sector simply don't want change, because that's why they joined the public sector, for the iron rice bowl that doesn't exist anymore.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Please please avoid this dept (so many people quit that dept after a few weeks or 2-3 months!), and IMDA in general at all costs... don't even go near with a stick as a few glassdoor reviews said. the culture is super toxic.

super long hours of OT because the bosses don't know what their bosses want, so you end up spending many after office hours and weekends redoing work over and over again.

It feels so meaningless and sucks the life right out of you. I've witnessed all my favourite colleagues quit one by one. Eventually I left too. Seeing over 50% of the staff leave in less than a year is so demoralizing. (We watched the member count of the whatsapp group for a particular working group in IMDA dwindle by >50% from Jan-Jun 2022... from 120+ to 50+... that's how we knew how many people have left. IMDA never makes a public announcement when someone quits/leaves because WAY too many people leave, and they want to keep it on the down low.) Even some of the new assistant directors have resigned after less than a year.

Most of the staff who remain there are the type who are ok with doing meaningless work just to please the bosses... at the expense of their own health and mental well being. Sure the salary was pretty high, but totally not worth the trade off in well being in my opinion.

To be fair, I think it largely depends on the division. The directors are able to dictate the culture and working habits of their own division to a certain extent, so if people find the culture toxic, it is likely that the director is not doing enough to shield their staff from the **** coming from above. There are more than 30 divisions in IMDA and the scope of work varies widely from industry development to regulation, so I'd say different people probably experienced different working environments. Staff survey has also shown that the working experience can be very different in different groups. As for the glassdoor reviews, I would say that only people frustrated will leave reviews, people satisfied or happy will not go on glassdoor to leave reviews. I am not from HR.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

seconding this comment. I've heard of directors scheduling weekly meetings on saturday from around 6-8pm+. One person I knew regularly worked till 3am+ daily and still showed up at 9am for work the next day. If you report this to the wrong people in HR, your identity could get revealed to your boss. Somehow this is ok in IMDA. Blows my mind.

The HR in IMDA is a piece of ****. Only do the bare minimum. BPs all pakat with the bosses instead of being impartial. L&D is just an overpaid admin department that processes course registrations but has no genuine interest to upskill the workforce. Glad I'm out of there.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Do they even conduct? I heard they just send out the survey and get you to fill in yourself hahahah slackers

A couple of ex-colleagues and myself had it with the same HR person, she basically replied ok, um, orh to everything we told her and gave the same template answer that HR is aware of the problems and looking into it.

Anyone able to share what's the current package/offers for G6, G7 and G8 at IMDA these days?

LCH is the worst paper general in civil service