Unhappy lonely depressed woman is sitting on the couch
Singapore woman quits ‘soul-crushing’ corporate job but finds freelance life stressful on less than S$2k
SINGAPORE: A Singaporean woman who quit her corporate job in exchange for freedom is learning the hard way that escaping the rat race can come with a steep pay cut, with her income now falling below S$2,000 a month.
Writing on r/SMRTRabak on Thursday (Aug 27), the woman said she had grown tired of her corporate job and eventually decided to leave to teach tuition independently.
“A while ago, I finally snapped and quit the soul-crushing corporate grind. My plan was to pivot to freelance tuition, enjoy some freedom, and live a simpler life temporarily.”
The move appeared to give her the breathing room she had been looking for, but it also forced her to confront the financial consequences of leaving a salaried job.
With her monthly income now below S$2,000, she admitted that adjusting to her new financial circumstances was “terrifying.”
One small indulgence had also proved surprisingly difficult to give up: her daily S$4 iced tea.
“Every single day without fail, I am walking into a store and dropping $4 on iced tea. Every time I tap my card for it, a little voice in my head screams, ‘You are making under S$2k! What are you doing?!’ but I do it anyway as a little ‘treat’ to comfort myself over how stressful freelancing is.”
“I know it sounds completely ridiculous, and it is,” she wrote, before asking fellow Redditors for advice.
“Please, someone in the comments, lay down some hard truths and talk some sense into me before I drink away my entire savings account one S$4 cup at a time. How do you guys survive the freelance pay cut without sabotaging yourselves over stupid daily habits?”
‘I would rather take corporate, at least the pay is higher’
In the comments, several users suggested that the woman consider going back to a corporate job.
One told her, “Hard truth: S$2k is absolutely crazy. Get back to corporate or find something that pays more. Don't use flexibility/comfort as an excuse.”
Another questioned why she would choose freelance work if she found it just as stressful as her old job. “You said you buy iced tea to ‘comfort yourself over how stressful freelance is.’ If both freelance and corporate are stressful, I would rather take corporate, at least the pay is higher.”
A third commenter urged her to consider the potential medical costs if her daily iced tea habit affected her health. “If the insanely low S$2k/month won't discourage you, maybe the fact that having iced tea might get you some serious health issues. Imagine the medical bills if this gets worse. There are probably uni students making more than you.”
Others, meanwhile, encouraged her to make her own iced tea at home to cut costs.
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One wrote, "It's not hard to cold brew or make your own tea and chill it for later. Unless you're talking about fancy Starbucks stuff.”
Another said, “You don’t have to give up on iced tea. Maybe learn to make it yourself.”
In other news, a foreigner working in Singapore says he feels increasingly excluded at work as colleagues frequently switch from English to Mandarin during meetings, leaving him and other non-Mandarin-speaking employees struggling to follow the discussions.
The man raised the issue on the r/askSingapore forum on Tuesday (Aug 18), saying, “Most of my company are from the same country (Mainland) and speak the same language (Mandarin). A small number of us are foreigners who don’t. I don’t expect to be part of every social thing, but the pattern has become hard to ignore.”