bye bye RCL

My last 5 days in RCL flew by very quickly. The experience is like what some say about your entire life flashing pass you in split second just before you die. Major events of the past 6 years just flash pass my mind and suddenly the last day came and become history.

There were no surprises, no dramas, no tough deliberations about attractive counter-offers, no release of tense emotions. In the end what the wise men said is proven:

"No one is indispensible, life goes on."

i have been pondering on this thing known as "betrayal", which many colleagues including my superiors around me seems to feel towards me. Have i betrayed anybody with my resignation?

It is interesting to note that nobody in my department ask me, "What are your ambitions? Is that your dream job? What are you looking for in a job?". The common logic seems to revolve around speculations such as:

• "you must have been given at least 30% increment to forego the year-end bonus."
• "you are offered a higher position right?"
• "there must be something wrong with RCL that you know but we don't know."
• "you cannot stand the work in RCL issit?"
• "you don't like your boss issit?"

Seems like nobody's first reaction is to feel happy for me that i might be moving on to a better job, or a job that makes me happier. The first reactions are leaned towards "betrayal" and "desertion", and what is going to happen to their agendas? At the end of the day, there is always the selfish side to everyone of us. In a capitalist and merits based corporate environment, every individual is very much responsible for his/her own decisions and results. i would like to quote my late brother-in-law who said:

"Loyalty is until the next paycheck."

Which in fact is really the basis of relationships at the workplace. Will you continue working at the same company if you miss a few paychecks? For the sake of great colleagues and superb bosses? i'm just trying to illustrate that work is just a means to an end. Therefore "betrayal" technically do not exist in professional workplace relationships. There will always be different priorities at different stages of our careers. A HR practitioner once shared with me the 3 stages of a typical career:

1. Fresh. Eager to learn as much as possible. Salary and opportunities to prove oneself is most important.
2. Mid career. Established with a comfortable salary and lifestyle. Job scope, benefits, working environment, colleagues, office politics, prospects become key considerations.
3. End career. Stability is most important.

For me, i'm at the mid career stage where the salary is no longer the key consideration (since i have a very simple lifestyle). Job scope and prospects become more important to me. There is never a best time to move, because there will always be outstanding issues. So when the right opportunity comes, i need to be responsible to myself and move on.

Just to set the record straight:

• my nett annual income next year will be lower than my nett annual income last year.
• i self demoted, my new position is no longer managerial.
• i no longer enjoy tangible benefits such as free parking and mobile phone claims.
• i probably need to spend additional $200 on petrol per month.
• i need to spend additional 30 mins commuting daily, adds up to about 11 hours per month.
• the job is tougher than before.

Yet, please be happy for me, because this is going to expose me to a whole new world and new challenges that i have been thirsting for. Furthermore i can now charge up Elephant Hill without any historical baggages...