New graduate steals job of senior employee in 3 months, Nansen HR boasts in post but faces community backlash
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New graduate steals job of senior employee in 3 months, Nansen HR boasts in post but faces community backlash
Nansen CEO responds: This is a "stupid post."
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Cherry Tan
Translation: TechFlow
A recent post by a human resources (HR) executive in Singapore has sparked widespread backlash on LinkedIn, after it was accused of glorifying a harmful workplace culture and work practices.
On November 16, an anonymous user reported the now-deleted post to Stomp. The post was made by Joanna Yeoh, Chief HR Partner at blockchain analytics firm Nansen, who was criticized for promoting a competitive "PVP" (player versus player) workplace culture.
The anonymous user explained: "The post tells the story of a fresh graduate who outperformed a senior engineer, resulting in the senior employee being fired within months. This was framed as a 'performance success story,' but drew heavy criticism for encouraging job insecurity and cutthroat competition."
According to screenshots shared by the anonymous user—which also circulated on the subreddit r/singaporejobs—Yeoh wrote that the fresh graduate had "surpassed a senior engineer" within three months, after which the senior employee was let go, and "the graduate took over his role."
In her post, Joanna Yeoh stated the decision was based on performance metrics such as frequency of Cursor tool usage and GitHub commits. She praised the fresh graduate for showing up daily at the company’s co-working space, effectively using AI tools, and requiring "almost no guidance."
Public Reaction
On Reddit, a thread titled "Promoting toxic PVP workplace culture in Singapore?" quickly gained traction, amassing over 370 upvotes at the time of writing.
User arcrenciel questioned the situation: "A new hire shows extremely high productivity, so they fire an existing employee? What message does that send? Is it because the fresh grad can do two people's work, so suddenly the company feels overstaffed and cuts one person?"
Another user, Factitious_Character, criticized the performance metrics: "What the hell, measuring performance by Cursor usage rate and GitHub commits? How is someone like this qualified to be an HR lead? This just shows how terrible your company culture is."
User Ok_Entertainer_4709 commented: "So someone who makes repeated mistakes and commits code 10 times a day is better than someone who commits once at the end of the workday?"
User BitcoinlongFTW sarcastically added: "The post got deleted—seems guilty after all."
The original post also drew widespread criticism on LinkedIn. Darryl Lo, a candidate in the 2025 independent elections, commented that while it was "encouraging to see a fresh graduate succeed," the bigger issue was that the post appeared to promote a workplace culture driven by insecurity.
Darryl Lo wrote in his comment: "When the message is 'we hired someone new whose performance surpassed a senior employee, so we replaced the senior employee,' this clearly fosters a PVP culture where employees worry that the next person walking through the door might be there to replace them."
He also noted that phrases like 'he gets things done' and 'he comes into the office every day' could be interpreted as implying that current team members are not doing these things.
Another commenter, Tian Chuin Chen, said the messaging was "deeply problematic" and expressed concern about the core values being promoted by the post.
The anonymous user believed the post implicitly favored new hires while "subtly shaming existing employees."
"Replacing a senior employee with a newcomer may signal instability within the company," the user added. "It also reflects the challenges faced by Gen Z job seekers in Singapore's highly competitive job market."
"As someone familiar with the company, I believe this reflects deeper HR issues," they said.
Nansen CEO Responds: It Was a 'Stupid Post'
In response to inquiries from Stomp, Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik admitted the post was indeed "stupid."
"As someone who has said many stupid things, I’m willing to admit that," he said. He described Joanna Yeoh as a "great person" but acknowledged she had made a "mistake."
"Writing a post celebrating someone getting fired is in poor taste. It’s not aligned with the values we stand for as a company," he added.
Svanevik denied claims of a "toxic" workplace culture at Nansen and pointed to the company’s "excellent" employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS).
"The claim that we have a 'toxic work environment' is completely unfounded."
Regarding company culture, Svanevik said: "We run our company like a sports team. Performance matters. Employees at Nansen understand this—and they enjoy it."
This is not the first time a LinkedIn post has caused controversy.
In October, a LinkedIn user publicly criticized a job seeker who sent a job request immediately after connecting, drawing accusations of bullying and humiliating the applicant.
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