Not a Good Motivation

About a month ago, one of my colleagues nearly went over to a foreign bank in Singapore to work when he was offered a job there. I felt privileged to be the first one to know about his intention when he informed me and wanted my opinion on his potential move. First thing I asked him is what his reason is for wanting to leave and go there to work. Though he had told me before that money is not the best of motivation to be considering for a job change, I knew he found it quite tough to live out what he said before. The salary offer (after conversion) was more than twice his current salary, which I considered to be on the high side for his age.

To answer his question to me, I quoted his statement back to him. He knew it all too well but it was hard to pass out the opportunity. Then, I asked him further if he’s willing to go back into the “fire pit” (this bank is his previous employment and it's famous to drown it's employee with work, just that this time it’s in Singapore). After some thinking, he said that his only motivation to go there is the salary package. Given a choice, he said he wouldn’t want to jump into the “fire pit” again. So, I sort of said that he has answered his own question.

Last Thursday, we had received our bonus letters. This colleague of mine got a really good bonus and he said it made up for the "missed" opportunity. So, I jokingly said that he had me to thank for advising him against leaving otherwise he would have missed out on the bonus, thus should share his bonus with me, haha. We’ve waited patiently for this bonus since beginning of the year. Strangely, the excitement didn’t last long. So, I told him that money is definitely not the no. 1 motivation at all when considering a job change because the excitement won't last long, whereas good working relationships go a long way which is what we are enjoyin at the moment. It also felt good to be able to play a part in someone else’s decision making. After all, I told that he’s truly an asset to our team.