14/07/2026

TUESDAY | JULY 14, 2026

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Welcome to the toxic bosses World Cup L ADIES and gentlemen, welcome to the biggest tournament of the year. No, not the Fifa World Cup. Welcome to the Toxic Bosses Leadership is not volume control Some managers still think leadership means speaking the loudest. Wrong. Anyone can raise their voice. Final whistle Here’s the reality every toxic boss should remember: People rarely leave because they hate working. They leave because they hate surviving the work environment. A R I N A T E D M A K C I K

here.” Then rejects compassionate leave like it is a luxury holiday – yellow card. 0 Boss insists annual leave requests be treated like applications for permanent residency – yellow card. Then things escalate. 0 Publicly embarrassing staff during meetings – straight red card. 0 Taking credit for your team’s hard work while disappearing whenever mistakes happen – red card. 0 Creating a workplace where Monday morning feels like walking into an exam you forgot to study for – red card. No VAR required, the referee has seen enough. Off you go, boss. Please proceed directly to the dressing room. The biggest own goal Here is the funny bit. For years, many bosses genuinely believed employees were too scared to resign. After all, people have bills to pay, car loans, rent, children to support, ageing parents, inflation and life itself. Surely nobody would dare leave without another offer? Plot twist: Many are. Not because they are reckless but because staying has become even more expensive. Not financially – it costs them mentally, emotionally and, sometimes, physically. When people start calculating whether unemployment feels less stressful than employment, something has gone spectacularly wrong. That is not an employee problem; that is a leadership own goal worthy of a replay from every camera angle.

World Cup – where employees are not fighting to stay on the pitch; they are sprinting towards the exit before the final whistle even blows. Forget golden boots. Forget penalty shootouts. This tournament is all about who can collect the most yellow cards, the fastest red card and the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for “Most employees who resigned without even having another job”. And before anyone says: “ Aiyo , people nowadays are too soft- lah .” Let’s look at the scoreboard. Across industries, we are hearing the same story: Employees are handing in resignation letters without another job lined up – no backup plan, no safety net and no dramatic farewell speech. Just one sentence: “I’m done.” Imagine that for a second. People are willingly swapping a monthly salary for uncertainty. Not because they enjoy living dangerously but because peace of mind has become priceless. The referee has seen enough Let’s review today’s match highlights: 0 Boss sends a WhatsApp message at 11.57pm – yellow card. 0 Boss schedules a “quick meeting” that somehow lasts two hours and could have been an email – yellow card. 0 Boss says: “We are all one big family MALAYSIA is entering a demographic moment that deserves careful consideration. In mid-October 2025, data from the Department of Statistics Malaysia highlighted a long running trend that has been developing for years. The country recorded 414,918 births in 2024, the lowest figure since 1980 and a 9% decline from the previous year. Over the same period, the total fertility rate fell from 1.7 to 1.6 children per woman aged 15 to 49. This shift coincides with a generational turning point. Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980) has begun entering their 60s, having grown up during a period when family sizes were already becoming smaller. For members of the Silent Generation (born between 1928 and 1945) and many baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), ageing often unfolded within larger family networks, where adult children were commonly present and involved. That contrast is now surfacing in how people approach mid-life and later-life planning, with younger generations following close behind. Why does this matter now? These figures matter because the number of Malaysians entering later life without children will continue to rise, affecting housing choices, care arrangements and community expectations. Smaller households have become common and a growing share of the population now reaches older age without children. This reality has begun to surface where older adults

Great leaders raise confidence. Some think fear creates respect. It doesn’t. Fear creates silence. And silence is dangerous. Because silent employees don’t stop looking for jobs; they simply stop telling you they are looking. By the time the resignation letter lands on your desk, the match was already lost weeks ago. You just didn’t notice because you were busy celebrating possession statistics while your entire team was quietly warming up on the sidelines, ready for a transfer. HR, please switch on VAR Perhaps it is time workplaces introduced their own version of VAR – not video assistant referee. No. It is very angry resignations. Every time three people resign within a month, replay the footage. Did someone feel humiliated, ignored, micro managed or burnt out? Was “urgent” used more often than “thank you”? Did appreciation only appear once a year, during the annual dinner lucky draw? Because replacing employees isn’t like signing footballers during the transfer window. Experience walks out. Ideas walk out. Trust walks out. Culture walks out. And those things don’t magically reappear with a new recruitment advertisement.

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The best workplaces are not built with fancy coffee machines, beanbags or motivational posters telling everyone to “dream big”. They are built by leaders who understand that respect is earned, not demanded. Who knows that saying “thank you” costs nothing. Who realises that protecting their team’s mental well being is not a corporate buzzword; it is good leadership. So to every toxic boss still collecting yellow cards like they are limited-edition football stickers, the referee has reached into his pocket. The crowd has gone silent. The card is red. No appeal. No extra time. No inspirational LinkedIn post about resilience is going to overturn this decision. Please leave the pitch in an orderly manner- lah . Your employees already have. Now excuse me while this Makcik imagines every toxic boss checking the office pantry tomorrow, wondering why everyone is suddenly humming the Fifa anthem. Azura Abas is the executive editor of theSun. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

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are willingly swapping a

monthly salary for uncertainty. Not because they enjoy living dangerously but because peace of mind has become priceless.

COMMENT by Dr Ellie Chee Shi Yin

When families grow smaller: Rethinking ageing without children

seek help, guidance and practical support, often revealing a mismatch between lived situations and inherited assumptions. The deeper issue lies in how later life support continues to be imagined. Systems organised around family participation now encounter difficulty accommodating varied life courses. Responsibility then settles onto institutions, service providers and community organisations, often through informal adjustment with limited planning. This realisation struck me on a personal level while working on my study published in Urban Studies , where I explored how childless baby boomers find their place in senior living facilities still fundamentally designed for traditional families. When a participant used the word “oldphans”, it immediately drew a heartbreaking parallel with orphans. The term stayed with me, giving to a reality that is often hidden in plain sight: Growing older without the “safety net” of adult children in a system that still expects them to be there. Perhaps it is worth recognising a quieter reality of adult life. People move through life with different hopes and expectations but plans do not always unfold as imagined. Some hope to have children, yet life takes a different direction. Others consciously choose a different path altogether. These realities are shaped by health, relationships, timing and circumstance. They are part of the many realities of adult life and represent one of the different paths people may take into later years.

Smaller households have become common and a growing share of the population now reach older age without children. – AMIRUL SYAFIQ/THESUN

their lived realities. Are we as unprepared as we fear or do we already have strengths to build on? Family remains central to many people, rooted in long-standing traditions of care and responsibility. What is needed now is greater flexibility in systems and governance, allowing these traditions to coexist with changing life paths. As ageing without children becomes more common, are our systems ready? Dr Ellie Chee Shi Yin is a member of the Active Ageing Impact Lab at Taylor’s University and a senior lecturer at the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Events. Comments: letters@thesundaily.com

procedures built around a familiar family model shaped by earlier generations. As family sizes continue to shrink, these expectations carry greater weight for those whose lives fall outside that model. This is where the mathematics of care becomes a human reality, with everyday care settings already facing a growing gap between the number of older adults and available caregivers. What happens when one caregiver can support only a limited number of people at a time? As the gap grows, care risks becoming more procedural and less responsive, even with the best intentions. Older adults remain valued members of society and deserve systems designed around

Those approaching later life without children remain active members of society, planning carefully, maintaining connections and contributing in meaningful ways. Institutional arrangements, however, often struggle to adapt to lives built around different support structures. Access to care, shared responsibilities and decision-making become more complex when family involvement is no longer the default expectation. Many ageing arrangements in Malaysia still assume the involvement of adult children. These expectations appear in everyday practices: forms requesting a family contact, conversations that instinctively turn towards sons or daughters and