In the past eight months, SMRT has seen more than 30 people resign, according to a Straits Times report.

Lasted less than a year

Up to 30 staff were from the HR department.

This included former colonel Lee Yem Choo, the HR department head of SMRT's Thomson-East Coast line division.

Lee had joined in August 2018 and lasted less than a year.

Just over a year

Chief commuter engagement officer in SMRT's corporate communications department, Elaine Koh, also resigned just over a year into the newly-established role.

The role, which involves examining the aspects of MRT maintenance and operations that affect the journey of commuters, had been first established in December 2017.

Engineering staff

Apart from HR, two senior engineering staff, Chia Chun Wah and Mario Favaits, also resigned.

Chia was the senior vice-president of maintenance and engineering, while Favaits headed the essentially defunct unit of Singapore Rail Engineering.

Singapore Rail Engineering was established by the previous CEO Desmond Kuek for the purpose of building and marketing SMRT's engineering expertise.

Resignations started after Gerard Koh left

The resignations reportedly started after the August 2018 departure of Gerard Koh.

He was the SMRT's chief corporate officer in charge of information technology, procurement, human resources and training.

Koh was hired under Kuek's tenure.

ST highlighted his resignation came barely a week after current SMRT CEO, Neo Kian Hong, took over from Kuek, his predecessor.

Possibly more resignations expected once annual bonus paid

SMRT has said it is streamlining and reassigning headcount from its corporate headquarters.

David Leong, the managing director for HR firm PeopleWorldwide Consulting, suggested that the wave of resignations could be the result of SMRT's HR department undergoing a transformation, resulting in differences in "business alignment" and working styles.

Low Boon Seong, managing director of human resources consultancy Align Group, further added that the string of resignations could also be a domino effect due to "fear of being the last man".

ST added that more resignations from SMRT are expected once the annual bonus is paid in May.

Top image from SMRT Facebook