SINGAPORE: Once upon a time, he had his own private corner office, a Vice President title, and a paycheck that could easily buy him designer watches on impulse. But today, at 44, he spends his nights stacking boxes in a warehouse for only S$2,000 a month—and strangely, he feels lighter.
Posting on Reddit’s r/singaporejobs forum, the Singaporean wrote, “I used to earn S$20K a month in advertising. VP title, good salary, nice office, and all that. I had a team, clients, late-night brainstorms, and the usual agency madness. I thought I was set for life.”
But as he soon discovered, the price of prestige was exhaustion. “This industry takes everything from you,” he admitted. “You chase the next campaign, the next award, the next client pitch. You sacrifice weekends, birthdays, and sleep. You think the stress is just part of the job until one day the job spits you out.”
Then came the layoffs. “When the layoffs came, I told myself I’d bounce back. With my experience, network, and track record, how hard could it be? Turns out, very. Suddenly, I was too old, too senior, too expensive. The calls stopped coming. The same people I used to help stopped replying.”
It’s a cruel irony that the same people who once sought his help in securing projects and jobs no longer replied to his messages. The silence was louder than the applause from his glory days in advertising.
Now, his life runs on a quieter rhythm. “I work night shifts at a warehouse, only earning around S$2K a month. It’s still honest work, and I’m grateful for it, but it’s a long way from where I used to be.”
And he still reminisces about some old memories from time to time. “Some nights, while packing boxes, I think about the past. The boardrooms, the campaigns, the long nights I thought would mean something.”
Still, gratitude, not regret, defines his tone. “These days, I’m just thankful I still have CPF to cover my housing loan. At least my wife and daughter have a roof over their heads. I don’t make much, but I still provide what I can. That’s what keeps me going.”
No bitterness, no drama, just reflection. “I’m not angry anymore. Just tired. Tired of chasing titles that don’t last. Tired of pretending success equals happiness.”
He then ends his self-reflective realization with a quiet admission: “Maybe this is life’s way of slowing me down, or teaching me what really matters. I don’t know. I just needed to let this out.”
This is not a story of failure, but of clarity. In a city that worships job titles, addicted to validation, approvals, and LinkedIn glory, his words echo a sobering truth—sometimes, losing everything strips away the noise so we can finally hear ourselves.
