Why Are Singaporeans So Unsupportive Of One Another In The Workplace?

Recently, a friend of mine was lamenting the number of X and Y nationalities in his workplace. “They keep pulling one another in,” he said. “At this rate, we’ll have all foreigners and no Singaporeans in my department!”

His isn’t the only complaint I’ve heard over the past few years. In fact, so increasingly loud have the cries been over job prospects for locals that, in September last year, the Ministry of Manpower released, for the first time, data around the percentage of Singaporeans in high-earning jobs at foreign-owned companies here.

The real question, I think, isn’t “which company is employing which nationalities?” or “how come X nationality can keep pulling their countrymen in?”.

In my experience (over 10 years of being immersed in and observing corporate life), it’s actually: “Why the h*ll can’t Singaporeans be more like them and support one another more?”

Unlike other nationalities that are significantly growing in numbers in our workforce, we:

• are generally super critical of one another
• don’t have a culture of lifting one another up (quite the opposite, in fact – we have a nasty habit of knocking people until they become famous, after which we proudly claim them as Singaporean)
• focus more on rising as individuals rather than rising as a community

We also generally don’t seem to bond as closely with one another in the workplace as many other nationalities do – outside of lunchtime, that is.

And when we encounter other Singaporeans outside of work (say, overseas), many even go out of their way to avoid their fellow countrymen.

Is it any wonder that Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) director Janadas Devan recently warned that social cohesion is becoming strained in Singapore, at IPS’ annual Singapore Perspectives conference?

Instead of being xenophobic and worrying about foreigners stealing our jobs, what if we started collaborating with one another and lifting each other up in the workplace? That means committing to help one another do better at our jobs, pushing for each other’s promotions, and not forgetting those we’ve left behind once we move up.

Basically, taking a leaf out of other nationalities’ books and working together to become a force for collective good.

There are other benefits too, beyond the workplace. Economists have found that simply growing the economy or acquiring material wealth aren’t effective ways to deal with modern-day unhappiness. What really helps? Social cohesion.

When we work together and rise together in our careers, we also grow more cohesive as a community. According to a 2024 Springer Institute paper on the effect of social cohesion on individual quality of life, this reduces the perceived importance of social status and income. TLDR: We gain more, while wanting less.

Of course, change isn’t going to be easy. A different IPS study from 2021 found that a whopping two-thirds of Singaporeans don’t trust others. But that just makes the change even more necessary – especially if we want things to shift.

And really, what do we have to lose?

At a panel discussion at the Singapore Perspectives conference, NUS sociologist Daniel Goh suggested that we rethink culture as not one of belonging, but of becoming – where Singaporeans think not just of who they are, but where they’re headed collectively.

That’s something that we’d do well to apply to our workplace culture too. Because doing that very Singaporean thing of merely complaining and waiting for the gahmen to fix it? That’s not going to get the job done.

It’s time we all got the memo: support one another more in the workplace.

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