Gentlemen of the Jury and the Maslow's Stone

"Honourable Judge, Gentlemen of the Jury, before you sentence me to death, hear me say why I KILLED MY WIFE...". This was an introduction of my declamation I delivered on one of the declamation contest way back my highschool days. It earned me a title of a champion then and a trophy which is nowhere to be found and nobody could remember.

On the verge of leaving my current company after spending 9 years with it, a lot of people asked my why I made that decision. They question the worthiness of taking such risk, the reasons for leaving; was it the salary? the challenge? the friends? the trend of seeking jobs abroad? or just a wild random move, which definitely was not among the reasons. They are all like the imaginary Gentleman of the Jury which I faced years back on my winning piece. I have to do a lot of reasoning, explaination, and everything just to satisfy their interrogative, judgmental advances.

One of the managers told me during our conversation, "It all would trim down to salary reasons..". When he said that to me, I was thankful of myself that I still have the dignity to hold back myself from firing back for that offensive statement.

Salary. If this is the only reason, then maybe I should have resigned 7 years ago. Salary could be one of the reasons, but not within the top three. But of course, salary is one of the top three criteria for my next prospective employer. So, what made me leave you, Gentlemen of the Jury? It is simply the misalignment of my plans and expectations with your goals. With your blue prints for your future, I cannot see any personal growth, development ladders, and motivational challenges. You are one of the best company I ever worked with. One of the best ride of my life, no question about that. WAS one of the best train for my destination. But at this time, this point in time, your destination is not what I planned. I have to transfer to another train that could help me get going. But who knows, someday you will just come around the corner.

Its just the way of life, why question it?

For the manager who could have less understanding on situations like these, I hope you could educate yourself, because even me, I did my homework on Maslow's Pyramid of Human Needs.