years, is well-known, a great employee, and very well-liked. He's in his mid-forties and is at the Director level with a group of employees that report to him. Given all this, I was surprised to find out yesterday that he gave notice. Assuming he's going to work for another company, I called him to ask why he was leaving and where he is going. His response surprised me even further - he is taking a break from his career to help out various members of his family:

- He has an uncle that has significant health problems and his aunt is unable to care for him, so this guy will help move them into a cousin's home and get situatied;
- His own mother has a number of issues now and has trouble caring for herself, so he will be helping move his younger brother into his mom's home, but first will need to do a number of repairs and upgrades on his mother's home to accommodate the brother, plus he will need to do a number of repairs on his brother's home so they can rent it out;
- And, finally, he has an uncle that lives in New York that is not getting the care he needs, so he will be moving his uncle to Texas to a cousin's home, but like the other projects, he'll need to help get his cousin's home situated to accommodate his uncle.

I told him that was not the response I expected, and that I thought it was commendable on his part to sacrifice his career for his family like that, to which he replied that these are people that sacrificed everything themselves to immigrate to the US to help give him the life that he's had, and that he couldn't look himself in the mirror if he didn't sacrifice something of himself to help give back to them and help make their lives a bit more comfortable while they're still alive.

It sounds like the company has left open the option for him to return in the future whenever he feels he can restart his career, but that's not guaranteed. In the meantime, he's giving up a good salary, bonus potential, and significant stock options to take a break to care for his family.