MAS for Mid Career Professionals

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I really want to serve the public and be proud of what I am doing.

Unlike many others here, salary is not a big issue for me.

But everyday, my morale gets drained.

I want to get things done, but in front of me, there are 99 layers to clear. These are simple things. I do not need so many layers. These extra layers do not value-add at all, and I say this without mincing my words.

The process is a disaster. Bosses here have become so risk-averse, asking tons of immaterial questions. It has made life a nightmare for officers who want to get things done. Some things are simply unknowable until we try. Yet the bosses insist they have to be known before we even try. Can anyone see how ridiculous this it? Many of my colleagues just accept it and smoke their way through. But I want to do the right thing. Unfortunately, doing the right thing here is very hard here. People only hear what they want to hear. Taking the path of least resistance is the easiest thing to do, but it is often the wrong one. But hey, why try so hard right?

I work in a regulatory department. When I liaise with foreign counterparts, I find their thinking to be a lot more mature. They are able to evaluate situations holistically. They also have a lot more trust in their colleagues. This is unlike here. My bosses are so focused on narrow points that they miss the bigger picture. They have trouble accepting that what we currently have is in not ideal compared to foreign jurisdictions, so they force themselves to justify it. They are so afraid of explaining our regulations that our most common suggestion is for the other party to seek legal advice. They have so little trust in others that they even want to get involved in areas where there are already plenty of experts sitting in.

With each passing day, I find my desire to do the right thing dissipating. Unfortunately, this has been difficult for me. I cannot live with contradictions, but my colleagues don't have this problem at all. They have absolutely no qualms providing suggestions that are half-baked and will only lead to greater problems down the road. Every time I do this, I find my soul shedding a tear.

My colleagues are very friendly and nice people to talk to. But I cannot understand why MAS works in such a bad way. Is it unique to MAS? Is it to unique to the Public Service? Is it unique to Singapore culture? I really don't know. The same colleagues tell me not to feel bad about it. If anything screws up, it is on MAS, not me. That is true, and perhaps necessary to convince myself to take the path of least resistance.

Alas, I hope for sunnier days, but all I see are dark clouds on the horizon.

The issue you spotted is real and in my view is closely related to how public service work in Singapore. In MAS case, it is even more obvious that it failed to build up and retain the expertise it needs. The management is made up of generalists who are always relying on briefs to understand issues. They are smart but their lack of depth is obvious in international meetings and reviews where other delegates are smart too and spent much time thinking. Our public service leadership do not have a roadmap or vision of how regulating banks/insurance/cap markets/payments will look like.

And it is linked to salaries and welfare cause good people w relevant expertise in law (to build the robust legal structure) in finance, in accounting principles in actual business all do not stay with MAS. And MAS did worse by randomly reshuffling management for exposures and do not pressure management for coherent strategies.

The result? A patchwork system very good that creating public messages for some hype over payments, VCC, green, tech

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Yes. Mid careers are not valued and are typically treated as "hands and legs". Also used to fill the bottom percentile of the bell curve when it comes to appraisal time.

Going by all these unhappiness within and the feeble attempts to cover up such culture within the organization seem to affirm my decision to reject the offer made. Have heard recent staff resignation rates were high too.

Is there off in lieu for Christmas and new year given that fall on saturdays?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Is there off in lieu for Christmas and new year given that fall on saturdays?

Yes. There is.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Going by all these unhappiness within and the feeble attempts to cover up such culture within the organization seem to affirm my decision to reject the offer made. Have heard recent staff resignation rates were high too.

It's not that bad la...some departments are just not as good as others

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Going by all these unhappiness within and the feeble attempts to cover up such culture within the organization seem to affirm my decision to reject the offer made. Have heard recent staff resignation rates were high too.

You are not exactly wrong, but everywhere have high turnover rates now so it is not exactly fair to say that.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You are not exactly wrong, but everywhere have high turnover rates now so it is not exactly fair to say that.

Turnover not high everywhere especially within the financial services sector. Other services sectors where turnover is higher are sectors such as F&B.

I'm not the commenter who provided the initial comment on MAS' internal issues/turnover, but using high turnover everywhere is not a good reason to justify an organization's inability to address the internal issues within/high departure.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You missed out the key words "it depends". Some roles obviously have more transferable skillsets than others.

Can’t think of any roles in MAS that would warrant and justify a 30% increment. Unless the prospective hiring manager/HR is blur or thought they found gold

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Can’t think of any roles in MAS that would warrant and justify a 30% increment. Unless the prospective hiring manager/HR is blur or thought they found gold

Regulatory compliance top of my head.

There are many IT and data people in MAS who have grandeur visions of thinking themselves as hot shot data scientists comparable to those in Facebook and Google and like to showboat that they will be paid XXX amount if they move to private sector. Nutcases.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Regulatory compliance top of my head.

There are many IT and data people in MAS who have grandeur visions of thinking themselves as hot shot data scientists comparable to those in Facebook and Google and like to showboat that they will be paid XXX amount if they move to private sector. Nutcases.

It's not so much that the IT and data people believe that they are worth that amount, but more of MAS staff are underpaid compared to bank staff for performing the exact same job, even if they are just of average ability.

Generally, the inflow and outflow of staff between MAS and the financial industry is in a sort of equilibrium, with the higher pay in banks (say, 30% including good company performance bonus) offset against the perceived job security and public service benefits in MAS. However, banks recently had large pay adjustments across the board due to excellent performance of the whole financial industry last year while MAS had a pay freeze in line with economic performance and the rest of the public service, so the 30% existing pay discrepancy grew even larger (maybe even more than 50% for top talents). Previously, banks may have offered only up to 10% increase for a "very average" MAS staff, but they would now have the leeway to offer up to 30% increase for the same "very average" MAS staff - an offer that many would take up especially if they know that they are only "very average" in MAS.

The financial and tech industries just need people to grow their businesses (preferably already trained so can just "plug-and-play"); they don't really have the luxury of picking and choosing only the top talents. Remember also that COVID-19 restrictions are exacerbating this shortage - both industries have to offer high pay as they are competing for a limited pool of trained tech workers who already possess the right to work here, regardless of whether they are exceptional talents or not.

Overall, this has shifted the equilibrium to the point where far more staff were quitting MAS to join the private sector, especially the financial industry. Management panicked at the high resignation rates and implemented a mid-year pay adjustment across the board (very extraordinary as adjustments are usually done at the end of the FY) - but this adjustment is still too little too late (in percentage terms) compared to that given by banks last year, so while the net outflow may be reduced, it is still there.