Moot point

I take performance reviews very seriously, and this is performance review time of year. This performance review, however, was kinda like the points in Who's Line Is It Anyway? It just doesn't matter. See, I've got one foot out the door, and my compensation on the Taiwan side is not tied to that in the U.S.

I went in to the boss's office this morning for my review as calmly as ever. I've had some contention with my boss in the past over my review, only because every year, I expect to get the highest possible review and will accept nothing less without a fight. When I first started seriously thinking about Taiwan, it was right around the time that I know they put in for merit incereases. The way it works it, there are a limited # of sheckels that get distrubted among the group. So my performance recognition takes away from someone else's. I was conscious of this and thought that if I could have shored up the Taiwan situation I could have quickly come forward and offered up my sheckels to another bard in my group. Things just didn't work out that way, timing wise.

With a cross to bear, I went in to the boss's office and got a great review. So I felt guilty for leaving but know it's just business. A cool thing was, my boss seemed genuinely appreciative of my work, even in the light of my departure on the horizon. At one point he offered up, "Is there anything I can do to get you to stay?"

Shirley had asked me to consider this question months ago as her crystal ball indicated it might come up. I had thought about it months ago and figured, in the grand scheme of things, this is a very illogical question. If you look at all of the reasons and incentives surrounding the transfer to Taiwan, there is nothing my boss has to offer to get me to stay. I was actually half surprised the he asked.

Months before I instigated the Taiwan situation, my expat buddy RJ said, "Don't do it for financial reasons." That is among the best advice I have ever gotten. While we often think money is liberating because it allows us to do some things which are otherwise not possible, I think it is ultimately confining, within reason. It can enslave you. I'm sure people in Haiti don't feel that way right now, and maybe I should be careful with taking money for granted, but I don't believe there is a strong connection between wealth and happiness. By liberating myself from the financial aspect, it allows me to really open mind toward the experience in Taiwan. It's not about the money.

So back to the question...when my boss posed this, I felt liberated, unshackled. I always went into my performance review prepared to justify and fight for every sheckel, and that imprisoned me in some way. I had to write diatribes of quasi-bullshit regarding my performance and how I added value to the company in the past year. This time, it just didn't matter. In a very sincere and hopefully, modest way, I said, "There is nothing in this building that you can offer me that compares to the opportunity that I have in Taiwan."

He got it. I think he was as improsined by having to ask that question as I used to be by having to suck up for a performance review. His question was as moot as my performance review.