I recently moved to a new job with about the same role, but I feel the culture of the new place is hard for me to adopt.

1. My previous role was a 8 to 5 one with clock in and clock out with weekends totally no disturbance. I was in it for 10 years.

2. The new place practices a flexi and no clock in or clock out but the other people work till late at nights (12am still receiving emails and sometimes as early as 7am,il I get emails too) and also weekends they remotely work and I receive emails as well. It's giving me anxiety as to when another email might suddenly come.

I don't feel the salary jump is worth it.

I just started for about a month plus, so any advice? Should I like ask management about it? And the perks seems to be a little lesser than my previous company.

Talk with your manager about it.
worst case, find another job.
if you stay, u'll get flagged as an underperformer & they might get rid of you.

how come now only your realized the perks not as good as your previous company - did you not inquire abt it during interview or before it ?

I don't think receiving emails outside of working hours warrant you to response to it immediately. Many people do not expect you to response immediately, so I wonder what's with the anxiety? I would suggest you to turn off all the work related notifications outside of office hours.

For some people, it is a trigger point. Speaking from experience, one can learn to adapt to this non-biz hour emails by ignoring or turning off the notification.

Well, the salary and all yes but the requirement to work on weekends with little to no compensation is something that I did not expect. My previous company gave 1 day replacement leave and a rm25 meal allowance for working more than 4 hrs on a Saturday or Sunday but here, they only give a measly rm100 for working on Saturdays or Sundays per day. Not being petty but I'd like to keep my weekends to my own but it seems there are certain compulsory weekends that need to work but not even a single cent compensation as these are "mandatory weekends"

This i agree but not when a whatsapp comes few mins after receiving the email asking if I did receive or not. I don't like them throwing balls around like "OH, I sent you de no longer my responsibility" kind of thing.

wow you get compensation - is it remote work or have to come in. Well i suggest you look into your Offer letter stating the hours of work .


Please ignore above advice if its a CHINA Man company because they wont bother.

Sorry to say...

You need to talk to management about your issues... And same time start looking for new jobs in new place @ company....

Not remote. You need to be at the office from 8am to 12pm or some days are 10am to 4pm. Both only gets me rm100 per day and nothing else. Counting from my net salary and divide even 30 days, this rm100 isn't even covering half a day. And that's only if you are not working on that weekend day. The company has a policy of alternate Saturdays we have to work (on standby remotely) for half a day and if that's the case, the compensation isn't given on those days.

And I don't know if it's considered a China man company but it feels like it.

This post has been edited by redracer2004: Nov 1 2025, 07:13 AM

I been working on and off from Mon-Fri normal office hour.. to sometime 24x7 emails incoming. Bcos follow operstions. Sometime u get a shitty bos who expect u to answer his weekend call or email immediately..
Supporting oversea is always the worst.. as they expect u to join meeting at 3am or 10pm depending on which region..
Honestly money isnt worth it in Msia.. our salary is cheap.

Just saying there are a lot crazier arrangement out there.. do pick one that you enjoy doing.. given it pays the bill

Why did you jump ship then. Sounds like your previous job is much better.

Did they tell you the expectation during interview?

Actually no, I was not told on these and other things like because many old people here who refuse to take on certain tasks, the management might coerce younger staffs to do those tasks which is not within the supposed job scope.

Also, another thing the assistant head lied to me was in the interview with her, she told me they hiring for senior and that I get to skip some formalities from going in as a junior but after I came in, she told me she asked me if I wanted a junior slot or a senior slot and I chose a senior slot. I wasn't even given a choice to choose at first.

Previous job has some survival issues like not enough customers to maintain the business etc. I am worried I be out of job later.

Find another job then. I want to tell you to talk to management, but realistically most of the time employees will not have much leverage.

The market works on supply and demand. If you think you can secure a job in the next 6 months, then can just ignore all the weekend stuff. Do ask in your interview as well if they respect weekend time or not.

Public listed company or private single owner company - Chinaman company are those - private own/single own or family owned. They just don't give a shit abt their workers.

If so Dont waste time in that company no future 1. Well please do always read the offer letter - if stated 5 days then you can argue take it to the labor office and quit that job.

This post has been edited by vin6: Nov 3 2025, 09:26 AM

I mean can argue and go labor office but it will bring me bad rep in future no?

IMO if you see a future there, then you'll have to adapt to their way of work. If you don't, time to start hitting the job search button. Some things you COULD try if you plan to continue working:

1. Talk to your direct superior - tell him/ her that some of these work expectations were not communicated prior to your joining. Share your POV and the kind of tolerance you can put in (ie. reply emails or whatsapp till 8pm etc). Ask about possible compensation for Saturday work if it wasn't informed prior, or wasn't made mandatory in your offer letter.

2. Set boundaries - set certain boundaries with your team members/ inter dept or superior. If you clearly will only reply text or check mail till 8pm, then don't read or reply anything after that cut off time unless its super urgent. Sooner or later they'll catch on it.

If nothing seems to work, see how long you can continue with it while job hunting. So long you're not a confirmed staff, you can leave easily within the probation period.

No really... but it takes 2-3 years to close the case.
maybe u can lose also...

before you join, you didn't ask HR about working hours?

try finish up the probation period, its hard to adapt but at least you try. meanwhile asked previous company any chance to go back

I don't get it, wouldn't you have inquired about the culture, working style, expectations and such before joining?

Would all employers really tell their working culture? It was my mistake to not see Glassdoor reviews before joining. Thought it had some fame, it should be good but it seems they are also having issues hiring people as well now, so I think I am the newest kambing korban around.

Yes, most generally do tell you how their culture is. Contrary to popular belief, it's really a pain to do staff exit and hiring, so most rather hire someone that have been told the culture and likes the culture, rather than just wanting a warm body and end up having someone non productive, can't fit in and having to exit and go through the hiring process again.

Not really - everything will be confidential.

if understand correctly, you have email anxiety?

you've been working too comfortably for too long
'flexi' is not always a good thing, time to learn to set boundaries and adapt

you might have noticed some red flags during the interview process so it's time to take that in now as a lesson

I did and know about it. Now I learned something new and I had to really heed from it.

good luck, don't follow the flow, follow your guts, but handle it properly

This post has been edited by alexei: Nov 10 2025, 09:22 AM

Set your boundaries with your direct supervisor/manager. Manage expectations and learn how to ignore those pesky emails past working hours especially weekends.

Setel has the same culture as your company, actually. I hope your SM/M is reasonable.

From what I heard of my AM and M, their only aim is to complete the tasks at hand. So if they send us something in the middle of the night, they do expect a reply but since there are two factions divided here, one group of staffs who are from Branch A will be scared and reply. Branch B people don't really care so it is showing weirdness here.

A job is suppose to be comfortable as it takes 1/3 of your daily time. It doesn't mean need to be lazy but if even job daily operation and routine can give so much anxiety and stres then i guess the job is just not worth it.

You are receiving email during non typical hours, can choose to ignore and not to install outlook app on your phone.

I'm in worse situation than you, receiving nonstop work related whatsapps messages 24/7, for pointless, non-urgent and stupid things.

Trust me, my side does too and it isn't pretty.