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- Quit or stay ? : A crucial question ! One which we've both thought about long and hard. In 1999 we started off with the idea to quit our jobs for the trip and start looking for a new job when coming back. At that stage we were unsure about the length of our trip (>> 1 year), and pretty sure that staying wouldn't make much sense. As our trip plans progressed we estimated a full year would be to expensive, given our transportation choice. In the end we calculated a lenght of 6 months as financialy feasible. So these 6 months became a breaking point in our choice to quit or stay. Although that was how we looked at it :-) We still had to bring the news to our employers...
- Bringing the news at work : Picking a good moment to tell about our trip is hard. Our daily work is filled with pretty challenging 'come and go' projects and telling the news too quickly could mean a lesser chance on challenging projects for the remaining time. Bringing the news too late, feels like dropping a bomb on a project. We choose to see how things go and make a decision depending on the situation we're in.
In January 2000 a good moment came allong, we both decided to tell our employers about our plans. The trigger was a new project requiring a long commitment. We used this moment to jump in.
- After spreading the news : A huge relief to finally have said it. It brings a sense of things getting real at last. And most of all finally the chance to be able to tell something about our plans at work.
- Reactions of colleagues: Generally really positive! Ranging from Whow! to "this doesn't really surprise me from you guys". And ofcourse the question why we've picked the Middle-East as our destination. (See explain).
- Reactions of our employers : Ranging from somewhere between surprise and shock. But also a relief that we've told about our plans in such an early stage. In january 2000 there was still 7 months to go so enough time to prepare for filling the empty position for 6 months.
- Looking back : We both feel we've taken the right decision at the right time. Although it wasn't easy to pick the moment for bringing the news, specially if you choose to wait for a good moment in stead of just pick or make one.
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