Every adult’s primary assignment is to find a livelihood, a means to stay afloat. Most make a living from their acquired skills and education, some are best suited in some roles owing to their personality, and others are enterprising, hence, they identify a problem, provide a business solution and make a profit. Ultimately, the lucky ones are those who earn a living from their interests or passion.

For those individuals who have chosen to add value to an organisation in exchange for a salary, they usually join the first company that offers employment. With time, as they gain experience and find their feet in the corporate world, they become appealing to other employers who they approach or are approached by. At this point of receiving a new job offer, a decision is made by the individual to either retain their current job or jump ship. Anyone who considers jumping ship is motivated by one of the following:
1. The Salary
2. The People/Culture
3. The Job Role/ Sector

The Salary
While money is the main reason people show up at work, it is not the first nor sole determinant to leave or take a job for some other people. I like to call the people who are motivated by the salary. The Objective Ones because they are never distracted from their reason for working, the money. It does not matter if they eat out of the same plate with their boss or if they have colleagues who have turned brothers, they do not hesitate to move on once a better job offer appears. Their willingness to leave their job for a higher remuneration does not mean they do not appreciate their current job and they will gladly stay if the current employer matches the offer. The frequent job changes on their resume might be seen as a red flag by some employers as it could be inferred that the people in this category are greedy and unreliable.

The People/Culture
These are the subjective ones. They will leave a job if they do not like the people or the work culture and they will not take a job with a questionable or toxic work culture, the salary is secondary. They are emotional people whose productivity can be influenced by their boss, colleagues and management as a whole. Hence, they guard their mental health at all costs. This does not mean that they are more reliable or better than the objective ones; in fact, they are more high maintenance because their needs cannot be materialised which makes it more difficult for employers to satisfy. In the case where they love working with their current employer, their positive mindset about the company makes them oblivious to the misdeeds of the management, they would even defend or make excuses for the employer.
They can excel at any and every role as long as they love the people and the culture. Their subjectiveness is also a weakness, as they can stay too long in a company that meets their psychological needs but not their financial needs.

The Job Role/ Field
The people in this category are The Unadventurous. Even if they are unemployed, they will never consider some job roles or sectors due to their prejudice against them. An example is the prejudice some people have about working in the banking industry. They are not even interested in knowing the pay range and the work culture. The Unadventurous can often be confused with the subjective ones, but the clear difference between them is that the former cannot stand a change in job role different from what they are good at even within the same company, unlike the latter. They will not leave their current job for a different role nor will they leave for a prejudiced sector. Their staying in the same company does not make them happy either; they want to leave but are not bold enough to take a chance on a new challenge in a different job role or sector. It appears that they are in a fix, not happy staying and too scared to leave. They can make lemonade out of their lemons by improving on that one skill they love to a level where employers from all sectors will poach them with mouth-watering job offers that they can choose from.