To leave or not to leave?

I’ve been given an amazing offer. To make a salary jump of 400% plus get a vehicle free! What’s the catch? That’s exactly what a friend of mine asked.

 

Maybe we are a bit cynical when it comes to genuine offers. What’s the catch? Whose hidden agenda can it be? No… really?

 

Yeah! Well, my cynicism cost me a good vehicle (now that’s another story, maybe I’ll post it one day) recently… anyway… I told him. No catch. It’s a genuine job offer which pays you a dollar salary and you don’t have to kill or sleep with anybody to get it. Maybe if you have to do that, people would make the jump?

 

Actually, there is a catch. I’d have to move. To another country. A country that’s doing much better than Sri Lanka, economy and development wise at least.

 

But the strange thing is, no one I speak to wants to go!

 

Now here was I thinking that everyone will jump at the slightest opportunity to make more money. Guess what, we Sri Lankans seem to be smarter than that.

 

I once read somewhere that 9 out of 10 people don’t leave an organization for a better salary. I remember why I left my first place of employment; management brought in a rule – you have to sign for EVERY printout you take. Wow! What next? Permission for every time you flush? (But of course this was after working in that place for 4 1/2 years. Now I am older, and wiser. I should have stayed on for another 6 months and left with gratuity)

 

So, what makes you leave a place? Cos contrary to popular belief, it’s not about the money, honey.

 

Isn’t it amazing how we would bitch about a situation but when we are actually offered a chance to leave it, we don’t? We want so many things in Sri Lanka to become better; politicians smarter, roads broader, salaries fatter, stomachs flatter, taxes lesser, bread cheaper… but, we are not leaving even though it doesn’t! Maybe, just may be, we actually like this country? Maybe even love it much more than we realize?

 

Now isn’t it also the same with a relationship? We sometimes look at someone else and think, if only my partner were like that and that and that… But hey, if you don’t like it, why don’t you leave?

 

I think whatever we say, inside us, we know that it’s not so bad. That job we have, that car we drive, that country we live in and that person we wake up with every morning, is so much a part of us, that we really don’t want to loose it. Or, the grass actually is not such a bad green on this side of the fence too?

 

Heck, they are still looking for someone for that job. But now I know that it won’t be me.