Pros
It’s a nice location and community at WeWork in Funan. The second tier team at HRM Asia – outside of the two or three protected leaders at the top – is an awesome group of people, working to maintain a positive outlook as the pressure mounts and resources dwindle. It's an OK place to be for the first six months or so; but only if you go in with eyes wide open and no expectations. It's never going to be the amazing career opportunity that they'll try and sell you at the interview.
Cons
The leadership and culture is an absolute mess. In 2019, there were 14 departures, leaving 13 people in the team at the end of that year. With every one, more and more gets loaded on to the remaining team – which increases burnout, apathy, and the continued attrition. It’s only March, and I know of at least four more resignations and firings so far in 2020. The two leaders at the top have a very close personal relationship and spend most of their days enforcing their own positions. Hence one is able to work from Sydney in a company where working from home is otherwise forbidden. He seemingly only turns up in Singapore to fire another team member who has had no performance management, help, or even communication about their supposed inadequacies. There is a distinct blame culture throughout – and yet none of that blame ever seems to stick to these two leaders. They email rude and dismissive comments, cc’ing in a bunch of your colleagues, and then ignore questions and meeting requests that could actually help improve the business. There is zero transparency. Even after someone is fired, their former colleagues aren’t told what’s going on. They just see the empty desk and are left to work it out for themselves. Firings often happen just before or after a person's scheduled leave to maintain the illusion (for what reason, I have no idea). There is a desperate need for more teamwork and cooperation between departments, but the reality is that there is no reward, and actually a whole lot of risk involved with helping out your colleagues during their periods of intense pressure and scrutiny.
