Bosses throwing whiteboard dusters: Why some workers closed the door on SME employers

When Ms Adina signed an employment contract with a boutique public relations firm about 10 years ago, the then 23-year-old found it odd that as a junior employee she was required to serve a three-month notice period if she were to resign. 

"I immediately had a bad feeling, but I ignored it because I was glad to have landed a job offer," said the communications professional, who declined to give her full name and now works at a multinational corporation (MNC).

Soon after she started at that small firm, she learnt from her colleagues that the boss had implemented the long notice period because the attrition rate was so high that the company needed more time to hire new staff. 

And during her few months at the company, she saw first-hand why this was the case.

From favouritism, unreasonable workloads, owed wages, and even the boss throwing whiteboard dusters at subordinates and grabbing their wrists, Ms Adina described the work environment there as "toxic" and "traumatic".

"There was no human resource (HR) department or person to report issues to. The boss was the HR," she said.

The situation was so bad that the employees lodged a report with the Tripartite Alliance for Fair and Progressive Employment Practices (TAFEP) and called the police on the boss, though they did not press charges. 

Like Ms Adina, seven other past and present employees at small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) spoke to CNA TODAY about the challenges of working in such companies, which they attributed to the lack of proper processes when it comes to staff management and HR matters.

Many of those who spoke to CNA TODAY requested anonymity because they were concerned about their complaints affecting their careers. 

Their anecdotes echoed recent online discussions in forums where others posted horror stories about their experiences working at an SME.

SMEs refer to businesses with operating revenue of not more than S$100 million (US$79 million) or employing not more than 200 workers. They make up about 99 per cent of businesses here, employing about 70 per cent of the workforce.

These stories have cast the spotlight on the lack of proper processes in SMEs, where the business owners are deeply involved in almost every aspect of the business and have the final say in most matters without input from other stakeholders.

Business and recruiting experts agreed that while no company can be totally immune from such issues, SMEs may be more susceptible to them.

Mr Daniel Charles, chief executive of Sum Capital Partners, said that this is not due to these businesses being small per se, but because of one person being the sole decision maker of the company.

"You can be a small company, but if you have a partnership, or have investors, there will be distributed points of decision making," said Mr Charles, whose firm invests in SMEs and helps such businesses scale.

"The point is, the decision making is not subjective because of the company size. It's subjective because of ownership structure."

Additionally, Mr Joshua Woo, CEO of Recruit Fast, said bigger companies typically have many shareholders to answer to, with stronger governance processes and audits conducted regularly.

"While there is naturally some level of subjectivity in dealing with humans for all companies regardless of their size, these structures in bigger companies help to mitigate them to some degree," he said. 

A spokesperson from the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (ASME) also noted the lack of formal processes in some SMEs.

"Most SMEs do not systemise HR practices in order to enable agility, preserve cash flow, and maintain the lean operating margins that keep them viable. 

"Because small and micro-enterprises are inherently founder-centric, 'double-hatting' is standard practice," said the spokesperson.

LATE WAGES, NO HR, WHATEVER THE BOSS WANTS

One issue that some former employees of SMEs observed in such companies is the lack of clear delineation of work, which would sometimes lead to workers being overloaded and not being remunerated fairly.

Most said it was not uncommon for some employees to be made to do work that is clearly beyond their job description.

For instance, Ms Adina's boss had an online publication business, aside from the public relations (PR) firm.

"Though it's unrelated, she would make an employee from the PR company work on the online magazine tasks without extra pay," she said of the employee who felt she "simply had to comply". 

For other SME employees, the lack of structure extended to the performance review process.

Mr Lee, an advertising professional in his mid 30s who has experience working in both SMEs and MNCs, said that performance reviews processes in the latter are standardised across the company with clear measurable goals documented.

"Whereas in ... the SMEs, it was more like, 'Let's go into the room and then they'll just start talking'," said Mr Lee, who declined to give his full name and is currently between jobs.

"And you don't really know what issues they will bring up, or what performance metrics they will focus on."

Then comes the issue of salaries and pay increments, which the employees found either unfair or sometimes delayed.

Mr Lee said that at some bigger companies there are fixed cycles when pay increments can be expected.

"But for SMEs, it is really more at the whims of the company. And for some of them, it seemed like it was not even part of the thought process until you (the employee) proactively brought it up," he added.

A vague performance review process also gives space for bosses to play down their workers' contributions, said some former SME employees.

A communications professional, who wanted to be known only as Adrian, recalled how at one of his former SME workplaces he and his colleagues would try to highlight what they had accomplished for the year during their performance appraisal. 

However, his employer would just focus on how much more the employees could do for the company.

"The boss would just gaslight you into thinking you're not doing enough. And they will use that as an excuse not to remunerate you fairly or give a fair increment," said the 29-year-old.

In fact, Adrian knew of an employee at an SME where he used to work who got promoted and handed more responsibilities, but was severely underpaid by market standards.

When grievances arise, many find themselves having no proper channel – if any at all – to give their feedback.

Mr Royston Loh, 37, who worked in an SME dealing with semiconductors five years ago as an employee engagement executive, said that while his former company had an HR manager, who was not a boss, the manager was "far too young and inexperienced".

This coupled with the company's lack of proper systems, guidelines and processes, especially in terms of resolving any work conflicts or HR issues made it challenging, he said.

"Each issue that came up was handled differently than another based on the whim of the CEO," said Mr Loh. "It became troublesome, however, when conflicts or issues involved the CEO himself."

Even when there are some processes in place for employees to give feedback or raise their grievances, they may not necessarily be effective.

Ms Cassandra Ong, who has about 14 years' experience working in MNCs, SMEs and startups recalled one former SME she worked at that carried out surveys of staff that were supposed to be anonymous but turned out to be otherwise.

"I know of a case where an employee who gave a low rating in the survey, who was asked to leave on the premise of not fitting in well with the company culture," said the 38-year-old who now runs her own marketing agency, OtterHalf. 

At the same time, she has also seen small companies whose bosses take their employees' feedback seriously, which resulted in visible improvements in the company.

"It all boils down to the type of leadership," she said.

Despite the weaknesses in processes, employees who spoke to CNA TODAY acknowledged perks working in a smaller outfit.

Ms Theresa Tang, 32, recalled the "scrappy" environment at a real estate technology SME she worked at about five years ago.

"Because the hierarchy was flat, you had more autonomy to run with your idea and quickly get them approved," said Ms Tang, a copywriter.

Mr Loh, who now runs his own education centre, contrasted his experience working in the SME where things moved very quickly to his other roles at larger corporations where there was more bureaucracy and red tape. 

"The improvements were done pretty quickly ... since approval processes are done verbally, and in person – the CEO’s desk was literally a minute's walk away."

He opined that it was also in part due to his boss' willingness to take feedback seriously and conduct employee engagement surveys.

BETTER PROCESSES DON'T NECESSARILY MEAN HIGHER COST

Industry experts said that the key factor that sets a good SME from a better one is the mindset of the employer. 

Mr Charles of Sum Capital said that a boss who is more growth-oriented would see value in taking in feedback and implementing proper processes that would help the SME scale in the future, rather than be too set in his or her own ways. 

SME boss John Lim, for one, is determined to make his company a good place to work. 

The 30-year-old, who has run communications company Media Lede with seven employees for the last five years, is taking management-related courses at a local polytechnic to learn better practices for his company. 

He's now putting the theory he has learnt into practice and arranges short but regular one-on-one feedback sessions with his employees so that any potential issues can be addressed early, instead of only during the annual appraisal period.

Meanwhile, Mr Max Lee, CEO of interior design company SG Interior Design, said he and his co-founders of the company made a decision together to do things differently after their first year of operations in 2020. 

At the start, the five of them had no clear roles, which caused some confusion and unhappiness among their employees and clients. 

But in the second year, each one of them took charge of one distinct business function such as finance, people management, operations and marketing.

"While decisions are made together, there is now clear delineation of who will follow through on any particular issue," he said, adding that employees and the independent designers they contract now know which "boss" to reach out to for specific issues.

One example of how this benefited the company is that it has a more structured employee training and development programme focused on various roles in the company. 

While some employees and employers said that some degree of lack of structure or processes is par for the course when working in small companies, they also agree that the businesses benefit by having such processes in place as early as possible.

As SMEs are known to offer less remuneration compared to bigger companies, having a workplace with good culture and values may be a selling point when recruiting prospective employees and retaining them, said Ms Christine Sheng, regional managing director at recruitment and HR consultancy firm, Talentvis.

"People stay because they feel valued, respected, and part of something bigger than themselves. This stability is gold for an SME, where replacing talent is costly and disruptive," she added.

For SMEs which want to take the first steps in improving their internal processes in HR management, Mr Woo of Recruit Fast pointed out that certain organisations like the Institute for Human Resource Professionals may offer free or affordable consultancy services to help bosses diagnose the weak points of their businesses.

"You need to make that first step, be aware of the actual issues first, before you can address them," he added.

Mr Charles from Sum Capital added that making the first steps to better processes does not need to be costly.

Giving the example of employee appraisal, even if a company does not have a dedicated HR department, the firm's owner can make conscientious steps to lay out clear goals for employees and make it a point to formally speak to their peers and managers to gather data points for a proper appraisal, instead of just appraising the employees on his own.
 
For Ms Adina, while she currently enjoys better remuneration at an MNC, she is not totally averse to the idea of working in an SME again – provided that it offers similar level of pay.

"I have worked in an SME startup before, and I quite liked it. And I think the difference was the startup had a middle management layer and proper feedback channels," she said.

"It cannot be just us and the boss, with nowhere else to feedback to besides the police and TAFEP."

Additional reporting by Deborah Lau.

Editor's note: An earlier version of the story incorrectly spelt the name of HR consultancy firm Talentvis. We are sorry for the error.