Many years ago, a friend of my elder brother told me- While being a manger- that he was willing to resign and join a competitor if offered $150 more of basic salary. This gentleman was commenting about two companies in Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector. While more that 20% of qualified adults are unemployed globally, (picture Below)
most people would prefer to be more realistic by accepting a job over keeping a jobless status endlessly. To decide about a given job offer, two different factors will determine future of retention. First is duty allegiance with one’s education, experience, goals…etc, family well-being, community, industry, etc (Value). Second is amount of compensation to allocate time and effort (Income). As a freelancer myself, it was easy for me to do projects that represents my values but reaching high income is still a far reaching challenge. If you are a full-time employee your struggle most probably would be adding more value for a satisfying income. Alternatively, your case may be like most Asian expats in GCC (Less value, less income) .The fourth option would be for those who found a work structure that succeeded to achieve both high value and high income simultaneously.
To understand this matter deeper, I prefer to distinguish between loyalty to your organization and learned helplessness. I have spent many hours communicating with qualified adults in my workshops and coaching sessions to highlight potential of their success if they moved to another working environment or joined another industry based on their extensive experience and in-depth knowledge. Unfortunately, “learned helplessness” during years of justifying high income is still preventing them from considering this shift. Strategically, they may do it after retiring. However, it is fair to say that childhood trauma has damaged capacity of most of them for hope. So, While FMCG is a vert profitable business, you can guess why my brother’s friend was just focusing on income!