# Singapore work culture



## virusme (Feb 3, 2015)

Hi All,

How would you define the work culture in Singapore?

I have been to Singapore a few times, like the city. I feel it will suit my lifestyle. But I don't know much about the work culture in Singapore. Could someone elaborate on the work culture?

I have heard stories of "if you leave office before 8PM then you are considered a slacker even if you are performing very well". But these stories are usually from SW-production/maintenance type employees. 

I would have thought "westerners" would not tolerate such "arcane" practices but you see a lot of westerners taking up jobs in Singapore. And mostly they are paid in excess of 100K (well atleast the few I met). 
So my questions:
1. Are these "arcane" practices common in lower rung of the payscales? or it is universal?
2. For higher end of the payscale, is there a marked difference in work culture between a pre-dominantly Chinese firm and pre-dominantly Western firm?

p.s: This is my first post on this website so let me know if I have broken any rules of conduct with this post?


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## beppi (Jun 10, 2013)

There is no "Singapore work culture".
It depends on the company culture, and the industry also plays a role.
Foreign companies mostly have the culture of their home countries, purely local companies (which are rare) are somewhere inbetween Western lassez-faire and stereotypically Asian overwork.
In general, you can expect to work more than in Europe and have less vacation days (14-18/year is common).
In addition, with the average Singapore household income now above S$10k/month, salaries "in excess of 100K" are nothing spectacular - and living expenses do match this!


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## virusme (Feb 3, 2015)

beppi said:


> There is no "Singapore work culture".
> It depends on the company culture, and the industry also plays a role.
> Foreign companies mostly have the culture of their home countries, purely local companies (which are rare) are somewhere inbetween Western lassez-faire and stereotypically Asian overwork.
> In general, you can expect to work more than in Europe and have less vacation days (14-18/year is common).


Thanks. When you say "work more than in Europe" do you mean productivity-wise or clocking-time-wise?



beppi said:


> In addition, with the average Singapore household income now above S$10k/month, salaries "in excess of 100K" are nothing spectacular - and living expenses do match this!


Oh ok, my information is few years old.


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## beppi (Jun 10, 2013)

virusme said:


> Thanks. When you say "work more than in Europe" do you mean productivity-wise or clocking-time-wise?


Both.



virusme said:


> Oh ok, my information is few years old.


Welcome to Statistics Singapore


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## chongkk (Feb 15, 2015)

Our typical working hours is around 44hrs per week. Not all company are into flexi working hours. We officially follows this 8.30-6pm (plus minus around this timing)

We have 11 public holidays and 14-24 days annual leave (company, seniority dependent)


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## Marie_mari (Apr 4, 2015)

I moved to Singapore from Europe and I can definitely say that people work here much more. I am not sure if they are more productive, but they definitely spend more time in the office doing something.


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## EdisonFoo (Oct 8, 2014)

It really depends on the organisation's culture. Usually government sectors or local based companies will have a "stricter" culture and always bounded by rules. I worked for local-based foreign companies before, and I gotta say, lesser politics and more result-driven.


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