SINGAPORE: When the National University of Singapore (NUS) announced earlier this month that all full-time staff would have to return to the office five days a week, the news didn’t exactly go down well. Many employees were caught off guard and left rather disappointed.

One staff member, however, recently spoke up and said that while he had no issues with the five-day schedule itself, he was disappointed by how poorly the management communicated the decision.

In an anonymous post on the NUSWhispers Facebook page on Friday (Oct 10), he shared that the management gave staff “very little time to respond” and failed to consult employees before making such a major change.

“As you might have read in the news, it didn’t matter whether staff had the opportunity to attend a Town Hall about this or not – none of our voices were taken into regard,” he wrote. 

“Please don’t get me wrong. I have been working at NUS before the pandemic, and working five days in the office isn’t a problem for me. It’s how this whole change was considered and communicated that really got me thinking about whether the management even gives a hoot about us.”

He added that based on his own experience and what he had heard from colleagues across different departments, the management tended to circulate only the messages they considered “safe” from criticism. These usually included presidential updates or cheerful email flyers promoting productivity and staff engagement.

In contrast, announcements that directly affected employees, such as changes to work arrangements, were left to individual departments to communicate.

He also noted that nearly a week had passed since the new work arrangement was announced, yet management had remained completely silent. 

He ended his post by saying that a well-established institution like NUS should be more thoughtful in how it manages its people. 

“Yes, I know the adage that ‘no one is indispensable’. But surely, such a well-established organisation ought to be more careful in how they manage so many employees?” he said. 

“Very sad behaviour….I can’t speak for all of my colleagues, but I do know, from the grapevine, that quite a number of us are unhappy because of how much we matter to the univ...