New graduates took the jobs of senior employees in just 3 months, and Nansen HR boasted about it, only to be criticized by the community.

Author: Cherry Tan

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Recently, a post by a human resources (HR) executive from Singapore on LinkedIn has sparked widespread discontent because it was accused of glorifying harmful workplace culture and work practices.

On November 16, an anonymous user reported this now-deleted post to Stomp. The post was published by Joanna Yeoh, the Chief Human Resources Partner at the blockchain analytics firm Nansen, who has been accused of promoting a competitive work culture known as “PVP” (player versus player).

An anonymous user explained: “The post tells the story of a recent graduate who outperformed a senior engineer, resulting in the senior employee being fired just a few months later. The post describes this as a 'performance success story,' but it has faced a lot of criticism for promoting an unsafe and cutthroat workplace culture.”

According to screenshots shared by anonymous users (which are also circulating on the subreddit r/singaporejobs), Yang mentioned in a post that this recent graduate “surpassed a senior engineer in three months,” after which the senior employee was laid off, and “this graduate took over his position.”

Joanna Yeoh mentioned in the post that the decision was based on several performance metrics, such as the usage frequency of the Cursor tool and GitHub commit records. She also praised the recent graduate for “clocking in” at the company’s co-working space every day, being adept at “using AI tools,” and needing “almost no guidance from others.”

Netizen response

On Reddit, a discussion post titled “Encouraging Toxic Workplace Culture in PVP in Singapore?” quickly gained attention, receiving over 370 likes as of the time of publication.

A user named arcrenciel expressed doubts about this situation: “A new employee shows extremely high productivity, so they fired an existing employee? What message does this send? Is it because recent graduates can do the work of two people, that the company suddenly thinks they have too many staff and decided to lay someone off?”

Another user, Factitious_Character, criticized these so-called performance metrics: “What the hell, using cursor usage and GitHub commit records to measure performance? How can such a person become the head of HR? This only shows how terrible your company's corporate culture is.”

User Ok_Entertainer_4709 commented: “So, is a person who submits code 10 times a day due to repeated mistakes better than someone who only submits code once at the end of the workday?”

User BitcoinlongFTW sarcastically said: “The post has been deleted, it seems they are feeling guilty.”

This original post also sparked widespread criticism on LinkedIn. 2025 independent presidential candidate Darryl Lo commented that while “it is encouraging to see a recent graduate succeed,” the bigger issue is that this post seems to promote a workplace culture driven by insecurity.

Darryl Lo wrote in a comment: “When the message is 'We hired a new employee who outperformed a senior employee, so we replaced the senior employee,' it undoubtedly creates a PVP culture, making employees worry that the next person who walks in may be here to replace them.”

He also pointed out that expressions like “he can complete the task” and “he goes to the office every day” might be interpreted as implying that the current team members are not doing these things.

Another commenter, Tian Chuin Chen, mentioned that the information conveyed is “problematic” and expressed concerns about the core values communicated in the post.

Anonymous netizens believe that the post implicitly favors newcomers while “subtly humiliating existing employees.”

“Replacing a senior employee with a newcomer may send a signal of instability within the company,” the netizen added. “This also reflects the difficulties faced by Generation Z job seekers in Singapore's competitive job market.”

He also stated, “As someone who understands the company, I believe this reflects a deeper human resources issue.”

Nansen CEO responds: This is a “stupid post”

In response to inquiries about Stomp, Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik admitted that the post was indeed “stupid.”

He said, “As someone who has said a lot of stupid things, I am willing to admit that.” He also praised Joanna Yeoh as a “very nice person,” but she did make a “mistake.”

“Writing a post celebrating someone's dismissal is indeed in poor taste. This is not the value we advocate for as a company,” he added.

Svanewick also denied the claim that Nansen has a “toxic” workplace culture and mentioned the company's “excellent” score on employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).

“The saying that we have a 'toxic work environment' has absolutely no factual basis.”

Speaking about the company's culture, Svanevik stated: “We operate the company like running a sports team. Performance is very important. The employees at Nansen are well aware of this and take pleasure in it.”

This is not the first time a LinkedIn post has sparked controversy.

In October this year, a LinkedIn user publicly criticized a job seeker who sent a job request immediately after connecting, and as a result, the user was accused of bullying and humiliating the job seeker.