\n<\/p>\n
A line manager who is empathetic and happy for you makes it much easier, while a manager who behaves like the employee taking leave is an imposition sends a different signal, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, learning how to create better workplace norms and cultures, I think, is a very important part of this.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many working<\/span> <\/strong>parents, the attitudes they observe at work are\u00a0precisely what stall plans to grow their families.<\/span><\/p>\n One mother who declined to be named said she would be open to having a third child, but finds her current workplace unsuitable for such an endeavour.<\/span><\/p>\n After a change in management when she was pregnant with her second child, her work hours have become less flexible and her bosses are less understanding.<\/span><\/p>\n Her manager, for example, asked her not to take childcare leave at the last minute so often.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cHow would I know that my child will be sick?\u201d asked the mother, who works as an operations executive. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense for me to plan my leave, as if I know my child will be sick next month.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She also felt that the company was not fair in their appraisal of her performance when she was pregnant.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n During her appraisal, her manager said she was not reliable because she missed a work event, even though he knew that she missed the event because she experienced bleeding during her pregnancy and went to see a doctor.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI had a hard time towards the end of my pregnancy, and I don’t think they understood,\u201d she said, adding that she sometimes felt guilty for missing work, but wanted to prioritise her health and her child.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWith the flexibility that I used to get from my old management, I think I would have another kid. But with this kind of situation, new management and so many new people around me at work, I don’t think so,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n She is not alone in her hesitation to expand her family because of rigid work hours and intolerant bosses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr Tan Poh Lin, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, said work-life balance and office culture are \u201ccritical\u201d factors affecting Singapore\u2019s total fertility rate, which hit a record low of 0.87 last year.<\/span><\/p>\n She said couples typically want to be financially stable and hence prioritise career progression.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIn the event that work-life balance is poor and families are forced to choose, many would choose having fewer children,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Associate Professor Mu Zheng noted that workplace conditions can affect fertility at several stages: whether young adults have the time and energy to form relationships, whether couples feel ready to have their first child, and whether parents feel capable of having another.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cImportantly, workplace pressures may affect fertility not because people no longer value parenthood, but because they perceive it as increasingly difficult to combine being a good parent with being a good employee,\u201d said Assoc Prof Mu, who is from the National University of Singapore\u2019s (NUS) department of sociology and anthropology.<\/span><\/p>\n Long hours, in-office requirements, frequent travel and a lack of flexibility are common sticking points for parents working in Singapore.<\/span><\/p>\n There is also a pervasive expectation that staff remain contactable outside of office hours, several parents told CNA.<\/span><\/p>\n Most workplaces and companies in Singapore have a \u201chustle\u201d culture,\u201d said Mr Daniel Yoong, who runs an HR advisory firm.<\/p>\n \u201cEmployees work hard, they’re expected to work hard compared to other countries,\u201d he said, adding that people want to advance their careers and earn more if they want to own a home and raise a family due to the high cost of living here.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone wants to strive for excellence,\u201d said Ms Nicole Chan, a civil servant and mother of one.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be excellent in our jobs, and it always requires us to work beyond what is on paper,\u201d she said, adding that her colleagues and friends rarely draw strict boundaries around work.<\/span><\/p>\n When she became a parent, she realised she needed to protect her time after office hours – a shift that left her feeling guilty.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms Michelle Yan, a centre success manager at co-working space operator Arcc Spaces, described Singapore\u2019s general workplace culture as traditional.<\/span><\/p>\n Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many organisations gradually rolled back work-from-home policies, especially small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and local firms, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBosses would still prefer to see their employees come into office as a form of their commitment to work, they need to see you around,\u201d she said, adding that this creates friction whenever parents need urgent leave to care for their children.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, those working for larger, multinational companies may need to travel frequently because of Singapore\u2019s role as a business hub, said Ms Maybelline Tan, a regional marketing manager who travels at least twice a month.<\/span><\/p>\n They may also need to take part in work calls at night if they are working with colleagues based in Europe or the US, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n With work life being so demanding, Ms Tan decided to have pets instead of children.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI feel very worried and I feel very upset if I have to leave my pets, (what more) if I have actual human kids?\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n Ms Sher-Li Torrey, who founded career portal Mums@Work, said she has received several requests from women who are not yet mothers asking if they can become a member of the network.<\/span><\/p>\n “They will write and say, because my current work environment does not suit it, I need to leave so that I can have a kid,” she said, adding that some will indicate that their existing job requires them to travel frequently.<\/span><\/p>\n In search of a better environment to work and raise their children in, some Singaporeans told CNA they ended up moving abroad to find the right balance.<\/p>\n Ms Irene Cheong, who is in her 50s now, applied for permanent residency in Australia before starting a family. Had she not succeeded in her application, the Singaporean mother of one said she may not have had children at all.<\/p>\n She lived and worked in Australia from the time her son was three, until he was around 10 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n She worked so-called \u201cmum hours\u201d that allowed her to send her son to school in the morning, pick him up around 3pm, cook dinner and spend quality time with her family.<\/p>\n This level of work-life integration seems uncommon in Singapore, said Ms Cheong, who works in HR information systems.<\/p>\n Professor of Economics Christine Ho said it is better to consider what constraints families face, rather than to find fault for the falling fertility rate.<\/p>\n \u201cHousing costs, gender norms that leave working mothers doing a double shift at home and at work, competition in education and at work, and a definition of success measured by whose children get the best grades or earn the most \u2013 those are constraints, and constraints can be targeted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n At a policy level, parents and experts who spoke to CNA agreed that strides have been made toward fostering a more supportive workplace.<\/span><\/p>\n In recent years, there have been increases to paternity leave and shared parental leave, as well as <\/span>efforts to encourage flexible work arrangements.<\/span><\/p>\n But family-friendly policies may not always translate into changes on the ground.<\/span><\/p>\n A 2025 survey of more than 1,500 people found that workers are worried that taking parental leave, requesting for flexible work arrangements or adjusting their schedules for caregiving could signal a lack of commitment and affect their career progression.<\/span><\/p>\n The survey, which was conducted by the National Trades Unions Congress (NTUC) Women and Family and the People\u2019s Action Party Women\u2019s Wing, reported that 41 per cent of respondents felt stronger leadership support would make flexible work arrangements more effective.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat tells us something important,\u201d said NTUC assistant secretary-general Yeo Wan Ling. \u201cFamily-friendly policies will only work fully when workers feel safe using them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n A manager who tells an employee to \u201ctake the time you need\u201d sends a very different signal from a manager who approves the leave but makes the worker feel guilty, said Ms Yeo, who is also director of NTUC Women and Family.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThese everyday interactions matter. They shape whether workers believe that having children and progressing in their careers can genuinely coexist,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, Ms Low, who had to handle work while her son was in the ICU, said she found out she was pregnant just four months after starting a new job.<\/p>\n When she shared the news with her boss, he asked her why she did not inform him earlier of her intention to start a family.<\/p>\n A policy can only be as effective as its implementation, said Mr Aslam Sardar, chief executive of the Institute for Human Resource Professionals.<\/span><\/p>\n He said manager capability and workplace trust are important because an employee\u2019s experience of a family-friendly policy hinges on how comfortable they feel discussing their needs with their manager.<\/span><\/p>\n It also depends on whether their managers focus on outcomes rather than an employee\u2019s physical presence, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThat does not necessarily mean managers are unsupportive. Many managers are themselves balancing business pressures, team capacity and individual needs,\u201d he said, adding that they can be equipped with skills and frameworks to navigate different situations fairly and consistently.<\/span><\/p>\n Beyond business owners, colleagues who are single or do not intend to have children have also voiced concern about<\/span> the workload that falls on them <\/span>when parents take extended leave.<\/span><\/p>\n To this, Mr Marcus Lam, honorary treasurer of the Singapore National Employers Federation, said openness between employers and employees will help in tackling operational challenges when a staff member goes away for a longer stretch.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n A line manager who is empathetic and happy for you makes it much easier, while a manager who behaves like the employee taking leave is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":83697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--jfUuS7o6--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/08\/family-planning-baby-singapore-workplace-culture-due-date-deadlines-gfx-cna-in-focus.png?itok=OECXeUO1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12983,1332,16643,2051,5639,6753,209,26445,1537],"class_list":["post-83696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-barrier","tag-culture","tag-fertility","tag-focus","tag-push","tag-remains","tag-singapores","tag-stubborn","tag-workplace","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WORKPLACE CHALLENGES FOR PARENTS<\/h2>\n
CAN SINGAPORE BE \u2018MADE FOR FAMILIES\u2019?<\/h2>\n
MANAGERS MATTER<\/h2>\n
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