The reason she has not left

An accountant in Al Ain has been with the same firm for nine years. She is good, she is respected in her field, she has savings, and she could find another position within a month. A new owner bought the firm this spring, and he has made it plain that he does not think much of the systems she spent years building.

She has not left. If you asked her why, she would struggle to answer, because she has never quite asked herself.

Part of it is the years. Nine years of effort carried her to where she stands, and walking away feels like throwing that effort out, as though staying could somehow refund the past. Part of it is the small comforts of seniority, which feel more certain than whatever a new place might offer, even when the new place might offer more. And part of it is that thinking seriously about leaving is unsettling, and unsettling thoughts are easy to put off for another quarter.

None of those reasons look forward. Every one of them is about what has already been spent.

The question that matters is a different one. What does she want to build over the next nine years, and who does she want to build it with? If the honest answer is not here, then each month of staying is a month spent guarding something that is already gone.

Those next years will not come round a second time. The chance to do work she is proud of, alongside people she is glad to see in the morning, is not owed to anyone.

We treat leaving as a kind of failure far more often than it deserves. Sometimes it is the most careful decision on the table.