r/sgworkassholes

I came to Dubai with more than seven years of experience in the hospitality industry, hoping to secure a decent job and build a stable career. However, due to the pressure of my visit visa expiring, I was forced to accept a position that paid only AED 4,000 per month without even providing an employment visa. Eventually, I resigned from that job and joined a hotel in Deira that offered AED 2,500 plus accommodation.

I accepted the offer only because my visa situation left me with very limited options. Unfortunately, the hotel environment was highly unprofessional. It was a newly established property with inexperienced staff, poor management, and no proper system in place. There were no incentives, bonuses, or salary increments despite the workload and challenges.

After six months, I decided to leave and joined a travel agency that initially offered AED 3,500. Later, my salary was increased to AED 4,000, but even after working there for two years and putting in tremendous effort, I never received any increment or recognition for my hard work.

In all three organizations, my supervisors were Asians, and I often felt that employees were underpaid regardless of their experience or dedication. Living expenses in Dubai are extremely high. Renting even a small partition room without a private washroom or kitchen costs between AED 2,700 and AED 3,500 per month, while groceries and other essentials cost an additional AED 800 to AED 1,000. Under such circumstances, it becomes almost impossible to save money or maintain a decent quality of life.

At times, I feel discouraged and believe that people who do not belong to European, Russian, or American backgrounds are rarely offered higher salaries, regardless of their qualifications or experience.

Wanted to get some advice on whether I’m overthinking my current work situation or if this is genuinely not normal.

I recently got a full-time role and am still within my first few weeks/months, so I understand there’s naturally a steep learning curve and pressure from clients. I’ve also noticed that my director seems stressed from client pressure and tends to speak quite sharply to everyone, not just me, so I’ve been trying not to take things too personally and focus on improving.

That said, there have been some things that have made me uncomfortable.

One incident that stood out was team members making remarks about men in front of me during lunch/meeting discussions, including calling certain men “manlets” based on their height. I usually ignore such comments, but hearing it repeatedly within my own team made me feel quite excluded and uncomfortable.

I’ve also noticed a difference in how communication happens within the team. Among themselves, they are collaborative and do alignment discussions/calls, but when I ask questions or ask to align before meetings, I sometimes get ignored or receive very minimal responses. Since I’m still ramping up, this makes it difficult to know whether I’m proceeding correctly.

There were also situations where expectations were unclear. For example, during my first time handling reports (including additional scope being added that week), I spent extra time checking numbers, screenshots and insights carefully because I was new to the process. I communicated that I would share the report for vetting once done, but later got told I was expected to notify the team earlier as I wasn’t supposed to work it independently — which hadn’t been communicated to me before.

At one point when I mentioned the workload was difficult during my first time handling it, mocking emojis were used in response. There was also another occasion where I asked for clarification on some calculations before proceeding because I wanted to avoid mistakes, and after revisions were requested, the word “stupid” was used regarding the work submitted.

To be fair, I do recognise that I’m still inexperienced and slower than the rest because I’m new, and I’ve been trying to improve by documenting things more carefully, aligning more proactively and staying calmer under pressure by not panicking when Im being accused

I would appreciate any advice on this and have been wondering if hr would be able to help with this or should I just find another job and quit after reporting this

I was with GSK pharma and they wanted me to resign without any resign and when i refused they transfered me to Tamil Nadu from Delhi i was in sales my job was to meet Dr to promote our products and ask them to Rx thinking that i wont join there and will resign but there was no option with me and shifted there with all the peoblems of language and culture again when i didnt resign they transfered me to AP i worked there than next year they transfered me to MP again from there to Rajasthan i I didnt resign and they didn't terminate i wrote to MD and HR head with no one coming to my rescue at that time i was just 38 in the middle of my carrier than i got a chance to join MSD Pharmaceuticals as they just came to India being a American MNC here again after 5 years of service same thing happened they wanted me to resign being so much experienced and they were not able to manage me with their so called bluffed marketing gimmicks in the end after 13 years of service one day they terminated my services without any notice Now since i was 55 by than and than it was the time that i chalanged my termination in court and within one year they settled out of court by compansating me handsomely to which i was satisfied so these company takes laws in their hand and do inhuman behaviour with their employees This was my carrier exp with MNCs in my carrier

I have a colleague who sits next to me and she would suddenly just talk to me without addressing my name, doesn't check if I heard her or even registers what she was saying and just blab off. I would need to ask her to repeat herself from the start and it's frustrating. I’ll be focused on a task and her sudden interruption never fails to startle me. Why can’t she at least call my name, pause and see if I’ve heard her, then continue talking? Isn’t this how normal humans function?

I have told her about this and her excuse is, it's just two of us here, who else would I be talking to?

She also treats every non-work related task as me being idle, I feel like I can’t even breathe. I can’t even snack on something during work, she perceives this as a window of opportunity to shove me with more work. In the meantime, she snacks and eats a lot while she’s at the desk and the chewing sound is annoying.

I’ve been working in this company for a few months and her never ending antics just irritates me. I just wonder if it’s a me problem or the problem lies with her?

So about a year ago a new woman joined our team. She has zero boundaries and doesn't know the difference between being friends and being colleagues.

We all work remotely so we communicate via WhatsApp and she just chats on WhatsApp ALL DAY. We have a group chat that she share memes on (often containing swear words which I'm all for, but not on a work platform).

Privately, she chats to me as if I'm her BFF... ALL DAY LONG. She tells me when it's her period, what she's having for lunch, what new outfit she bought, talks about her sex life. She's even over friendly with our boss and clients. She's also incredible attention seeking and dramatic, often saying things like "I am going to die!" or "I'm so angry with our client I want to murder him!" or complaining about clients who simply asked for more information... to our BOSS! Saying they're "so annoying" or "driving me nuts". She is just incredibly DRAINING.

I sometimes feel like she lies about being sick to get attention. Last week she said she had flu and I ignore her. A few hours later it was bronchitis. I ignored her. Then she was at the doctor's and had a respiratory infection (the doctor's appointment, two injections, and a diagnosis all happened within 20 minutes after telling us she's going to the doctor).

Anyhoo, the other day she crossed a line by making some comment to me about my sex life. I told her that I keep my private life private. Since then I started setting subtle boundaries by only responding to her when she talks about work and now she has stopped talking to me completely (which is great! BUT I feel like she is sulking.

Me being a naturally kind person now feels bad, but I know she was taking advantage of me listening and always responding. But, I can't continue to be her emotional caretaker.

Anyone experience something similar in a remote work environment? I'm just going to keep it professional and ignoring anything personal as it seems to be all or nothing with her - there is no happy middle.

My friend works in a dessert shop. She complains on how the manager is a s*xist, r*cist, and an anti-femi*ist. He only complains about the girls and even when the boys are doing nothing, they aren't getting in trouble. He also cuts off moldy parts of fruits and puts the nonmoldy part into a container of fresh fruit. I just want to know if all managers are like this or is it mine in particular. Also the boys would continuously talk bad about the girls. Not every once in a while, MORE LIKE EVERYDAY. I didn't even know there was this much to talk about. One insult in particular was saying how this rude delivery driver probably acted like my friend's dad. (Not true, my friends dad is super nice) Only two guys that work with her are normal. A moment that left me baffled was when the manager and an employee were so frustrated with a hispanic person, they said that ICE should come and deport them, even the Hispanic employee agreed.
Anyways just a rant!
Id like to also hear some toxic work stories too if anyone has.