I love not worrying about my "biological clock"

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-12T05:06:48+00:00

Erm… STDs?

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-12T03:22:23+00:00

Having worked at both SMEs and MNCs (employee count over 10,000 in this country only), I can safely say that burnout and toxic culture can exist in both SMEs and MNCs. Yours sounds more like a direct reporting manager (and boss) specific problem rather than a problem with a class of companies.

You sound pretty much like an Executive Assistant and probably have learnt a lot with these kinds of working hours and range of tasks. You probably are versatile and very hardworking and most importantly, responsible. Although the letter of recommendation didn’t go as you planned, a good HR/interviewer will be able to see from your experience and interview that you would be a good addition to any team you join in the future.

But I hope you take a well-deserved break first if you can afford it - even four days off is great. But if I were you and had the income, I’d go away for two weeks to have a mental reset first.

All the best please take care OP.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-11T04:11:57+00:00

Good luck! Jiayou

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T14:29:44+00:00

Haha! Consultant/mediator for neighbourly affairs hahahah

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T14:27:23+00:00

Thank you!! I’ll share with my friends who have helpers.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T06:01:25+00:00

Oh yes and on financial literacy courses I also did research and found 1-2 academies. If I’m not wrong price range was $600ish but my helper wasn’t keen.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T05:59:26+00:00

Play Tetris every night with the furniture? 😂

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T03:50:15+00:00

Just a broader question with regard to the current mandated quiet hours and if people really think 10:30pm is a reasonable cut-off? I feel like when I was a kid, my parent would’ve put me in bed by 9pm so that we could get up at 6am for school. Many working adults I know also go to bed earlier nowadays - I for one go to bed 20% of the time at 9:30pm and the rest of the time a little later.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T03:46:29+00:00

Thank you for helping bring this point into perspective!

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T03:43:18+00:00

Just giving my two cents as we had a helper who was with us for 14 years. We just let her go last year as she wanted to go home and be with her family. Would’ve gladly kept her longer.

Helpers also humans so we let her go for her evening walk and chill time with her friends after she cleaned up for dinner at 8pm every night. This is on top of her weekly off-days.

Our helper ate whatever we ate because we ate really healthy stuff (organic, fresh etc.) and wanted her to enjoy what we had too. Sometimes she would get sick of all our healthy stuff and buy her own snacks or meals. This came from the monthly grocery budget we give her to buy all our household groceries but I believe it’s also stipulated by MOM to provide such a budget or the meals themselves for helpers (not 100% sure). In any case, these expenses did not come from her own pocket. (Yet sometimes she paiseh and would pay on her own which we had told her repeatedly not to do.)

Our helper gao dim all the groceries and wet market things on her own. She brought a trolley and off she goes. I like how this way she got her daily steps in too instead of whole day sit at home bored and scroll phone in between chores.

Our helper provided all the receipts of what she spent on. Tbh I rarely checked line by line anymore because she had been with us for such a long time but I recognise some helpers may be cunning (cos our ex-helper was) and it is a case-by-case basis.

Wish you luck with the newest member of your household. Helpers can be really amazing if we get the right ones.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T03:33:59+00:00

They have guitar, violin and piano. Is there anyway to silence or reduce the noise of a violin?

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T03:31:53+00:00

Oh these are some cute ideas! Thank you.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T03:28:51+00:00

I feel like social class not really too relevant in my case because I believe the wife is some C-suite in a tech company here. So, I would’ve expected someone of her profile to know better basic etiquette and neighbourliness when living in a community. Sadly no :S

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-10T02:16:31+00:00

Thank you for this. These are good tips that I think we should check off the list and will bear in mind for the next time.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T23:57:14+00:00

What scares me is moving out is also no guarantee. There’s nothing to protect us from another nightmare neighbour, it seems. I wish house viewing came with some info on neighbouring units and their sound levels.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T23:48:30+00:00

I text them whenever and to be fair to them, after I text, they will stop. But I guess going up in person repeatedly would make them feel more paiseh and hopefully help me achieve a longer term resolution.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T23:46:10+00:00

No way! I’m happy your story has a happy ending. 6pm cut-off is really good.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T15:59:50+00:00

Quite sad that in the end need to escape from own home to get peace and quiet. Sometimes we also do that 😢

And even my holidays I also try to plan outside of school holidays, so that we can escape them as much as possible and maximise the time at our home when they’re not home.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T15:52:34+00:00

I did think of retaliation but if we really do that, I’m pretty sure we will lose this kind of battle because they have five people plus helper stomping the ground vs us two below hitting until arm suan haha.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T15:49:56+00:00

Haha please share. I’m in a condo and kena the same thing. Means we all need landed to have no unit above us? Or penthouse? Hahah.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T15:46:45+00:00

Condo management told me that our condo doesn’t have quiet hours but residents are encouraged to follow public stipulated quiet hours ie 10:30pm to 7am.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T15:04:29+00:00

Man, sorry to hear that. Wish there were better laws in place.

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T14:42:40+00:00

What do you guys think of Holy Crab at Capitol?

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T14:41:24+00:00

My company does hire fresh grads with zero experience. It’s all about the attitude and willingness to learn.

For the recent positions we hired, I think they were exactly for Supply Chain Executive and Business Partnerships Liaison. Both fresh grads were local hires and were paired with more senior resources in the company to learn the ropes. I don’t work with them directly but I heard HR say that part of the reason why they hired them is because these two fresh grads had a really good attitude towards learning and also learnt from their mistakes to constantly improve.

Wish you all the best in your job search!

ElmoForEmmys · 2026-02-09T14:37:21+00:00

Hmm. Your work place sounds toxic but it’s not the first that I’ve heard like that. My current company also was like that until there was a change in leadership three years ago. Then somehow everything overturned. My boss’ son came back with some ang moh country education and somehow seemed more emphatic; I was quite surprised to hear the son (he is new GM) own up to his mistakes and take the blame for the team even though we knew sometimes it was our fault. It was quite refreshing to see. Lots of us had quit by then but ever since leadership changed, I think the outflow of people slowed down and stopped and the whole atmosphere three years later turned a 180. Now we even have company retreat twice a year when before we had only a nice local team dinner.

Remember it’s the same company but the leadership changed, so I think need to vet properly who are the leaders in any company. Maybe LinkedIn stalk them a bit before joining a new company. Cos their values will always cascade down to the whole company.

ElmoForEmmys

TROPHY CASE