The person stayed for 6 years plus and from what I heard she's relatively young. And e reason she quit was that she wanted to go Europe for a one month tour and she didn't want to take a month of unpaid leave and come back with no more leave for the rest of the year.
Now that I think about it, she's just three months short of getting aws and bonus. So why wouldn't she wanna stay and get it first before leaving? That's a few months of extra pay....

You mean the person don't
want to take one month of PAID leave right? The reason for leaving is very suspicious. But then, most ppl will not reveal the true reason for leaving.

6 years is a long time. I think the work environment is fine otherwise this person will not stay on for 6 years.

Is your work place easy to take leave or must inform weeks in advance? If the former, tough it out and apply for other jobs at the same time.

Only resign without a job if the work is affecting your health.

All the best!

I think there are 2 main reasons you cited for wanting to leave:

#1 Leaving 10 mins before official hours and some colleagues possibly not happy. To be real honest about it, it is very rare for jobs in Singapore to be able to leave on time everyday, much less leave earlier than official hours.

Even if a company prides itself as being family friendly, I doubt they will accept some new guy that goes home early everyday. In that sense, if you find a company that really allow you to go home on time/early every single day, it is a big bonus. It is just too bad you made a "bad" decision to leave your previous company that allows this, it is not likely to appear again, so really the problem is more with your expectation than this new company.

You said the reason you left was you wanted to learn, bigger responsibility, career progression etc. This is somewhat at odds with your wanting to maintain the 9-6 work life balance lifestyle, better make up your mind what exactly is it you want. Unless you are really talented, you can't go around looking for jobs that give your good career prospect, yet still want to maintain this kind of relax work expectations.

#2 Not able to get close with colleagues. Agree in the sense that long term wise it is not very good, but ultimately you are there to work, not attend ECA in school or RC to make friends.

Do take note that by you constantly disappearing for interviews will likely make the whole situation worse. They going to sense something amiss if some new guy only join for 2 weeks always finding excuse to disappear for periods of time. Expect such news to reach your boss which will llikely place you under further supervision and micromanagement.

You don't want to get yourslef in a situation where you get sacked without a job. This will make your next job hunt very difficult. It is hard to explaing prolong periods of unemployment and if your industry is small, many will soon find out you were termuinated within weeks of your job which generate bad reputation.

Yes she left when she could have taken a one month paid aws in dec and then her performance bonus in January. Which if I were her, January is not too far away and I wouldn't want to be at odds with extra cash.

I'm not sure but I hv this feeling that they see me as a threat. Certain things they are supposed to do but they don't do and I i find it hard to say anything given the situation now so I just suck it up and smile through.

I'm still trying to get used to the environment but it is really still a culture shock after almost a month here. I guess I made a wrong move this time. :( seriously how do u all check on the company before jumping into it? I have asked the interviewer, I have asked a friend in the company though in another department, but it is totally different from what the interviewer has told me.

Just be careful of what you said lo. Politics are everywhere esp in office environment. As a newbie, you are definitely kenna talked/reviewed by the old timers and the 'feedback' by these old timers will of course be delivered to the Head.

As for your 'cannot click with them', sorry, this can't be helped. Either you step out of your comfort zone and try to small talk with care with them or sit at one corner quietly and get more 'meetings' from the manager. I have been through that and already know that such environment is not suitable for me. You must be aware that sometimes, small things are exaggerated esp when the 'feedback' comes out from a woman's mouth. Anyway, if you foresee this is not the place for you and you plan to leave, find a job first. There is nothing wrong to quit from this job even after 2 weeks. Most of the time, only when you are in the job itself, then you can assess the suitability. All those interviews we all go through are just preliminary filtering of potential candidates. There is no way a person can tell whether the company is good, bad or suitable or not suitable for him/her unless she/he has worked a considerable length of time in that company.

Yup, those old birds really love to make things difficult for the newcomers and I hate that. Kenna 2 such companies liao. They purposely one :(

ask for after office hours interviews so that less of chance of being detected. this kind of culture very fast will spread rumour if you just disappear for 2 hrs during office hours, old birds & mgr will use this opp to whack you jialat jialat then.

Ideally good idea, but realistically not possible if you ask me.

Unless TS is in a senior managerial role, why would the interviewers/HR bother to make exception to stay back just to interview him for a normal PME job? TS is the one looking for a job, not the company is headhunting an elite talent.

Even if they can, TS keep emphasize he wants to work in a work life balance family company where he can go off on time. Would a company who has people conducting interviews at 7pm/8pm be the kind of family friendly place he want to work in?

Yes, I also think so... this is the Catch-22 here.

That's why some companies prefer to keep their employees very busy - so they have no time to look for other jobs, prepare resume, go for interview, etc. hahaha.

This TS is a female la... That's y looking for a family oriented job cuz I hv a young child. I only hv diploma, so no, I'm not in some senior managerial position. My current colleagues there are a few unmarried ladies in their 40s. And I can feel the resistance towards me. Am I considered a threat? Seriously if I know... But I cannot turn back e time now.
I prefer to stay in government industry, or at least in e education industry because it is family oriented. And another thing is that private sector is unable to pay what I'm getting now lor. Even another statboard also say I'm overqualified. How to move?