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9 in 10 Singaporeans say job hours and workload different from what was promised at the interview: Glassdoor
Feel like you’re working more than agreed? Well, you’re not alone.
According to a Glassdoor survey of 1,043 Singaporean employees and job seekers, 92 per cent of respondents said their working hours turned out to be different from what their employers initially communicated.
Respondents identified hours, workload and responsibilities as areas of their job that ended up being different from the expectations the company had set at the interview.
This disparity between the expectations and reality of the job affected the “vast majority of employees” in Singapore, Glassdoor said, adding that a “negative” reality could cause people to leave and affect retention rates.
While the survey did not ask respondents to indicate if the realities of their job were negative or positive compared to expectations, Glassdoor COO Christian Sutherland-Wong told Business Insider that a negative reality was likely the case for most Singaporeans.
“It is safe to say that people are more likely to feel let-down than delighted, based on the assumption that an employer is very unlikely to ever under-sell itself,” Sutherland-Wong said.
He added that the average job seeker in Singapore did not have enough information to make an informed decision about a potential workplace, resulting in many people accepting offers without “a clear idea of the reality of what it is like to work for a particular company, performing a particular job”.
Glassdoor’s survey, which took place last December, was conducted for the launch of its localised Singapore website on Wednesday (Jan 16).
The company – which is the second biggest jobs site in the US – now has 18 localised sites around the world, including Singapore’s – which will show local users Singapore-based companies first during a search, as well as salaries in Singapore dollars.
One popular feature on Glassdoor’s site is an section that displays anonymous reviews of a company submitted by its employees. This allows potential joiners to find out about the company’s culture before joining.
Sutherland-Wong said that Glassdoor decided to launch a localised site thanks to a strong local user base. “Visits from people in Singapore are already relatively high for the size of the country, which suggests there is a strong appetite for our jobs, reviews and insights,” he said.
Glassdoor’s survey also found that almost 90 per cent of Singaporeans wanted more knowledge about what a fair salary would be for their position and skill set in the Singapore market, highlighting “a lack of transparency on salary in the workplace”.
Possibly due to the knowledge gap, over 70 per cent of respondents said they did not negotiate their salary at their most recent job offer.
However, over 80 per cent of respondents also said that when looking for a new job, they valued the right workplace culture over getting a higher salary.
The survey found that about 70 per cent of millennial-age respondents (18 to 34 years old) planned to look for a new job this year, compared to 66 per cent of those aged 35 to 44 years, and about 50 per cent of those aged 45 and over.
Source: https://www.businessinsider.sg/9-in-10-singaporeans-say-job-hours-and-workload-different-from-what-was-promised-at-the-interview-glassdoor/