Column · job pays goes nowhere
Low pay forces a decision. Adequate pay removes the pressure to make one, and the years pass in a state that feels like stability because nothing is visibly breaking.
After twelve months, name three things you can now do that you could not do before, and three artefacts that exist because of your work. If the lists are empty, the compensation was consumed by the job.
Because the cost of leaving is immediate and the cost of staying is deferred. Deferred costs are systematically underestimated, especially when the current month is fine.
Build one artefact per quarter outside the job: a record, a tool, a piece of writing, a relationship that exists independently of the employer. The point is not to leave; it is to make leaving possible, which changes the terms of staying.
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