The hardest career conversation is sometimes the one with yourself
It’s easy to blame management or a bad job market for feeling like one is ‘stuck’. But there are reasons that could be in the employee’s control.
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A new study found that only 14 per cent of Singapore employees felt engaged at work in 2025.
ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
Dennis Chan
A female client in her 30s felt disappointed that she had been passed over for promotion and sidelined from higher-profile projects. When she attended career guidance sessions with me, I asked whether she had ever discussed her aspirations openly with her supervisor. She admitted she had not.
When she eventually decided to take those steps, it emerged that her manager had quietly assumed she preferred a lighter workload, given that she was raising two young children. It was an assumption that had never been tested, and it had been shaping decisions about her career without her knowledge.
