Four job options

As I come to the end of my second year in Japan, I'm thinking about the four options I will face in my final year.

1. The worst option would be "Do nothing." In this case, we would be flown back to Hawaii upon our DEROS (Date Eligible to Return from OverSeas), and I would exit the federal service. Not only would I be unemployed, but I would be straight-up jobless -- not even entitled to unemployment benefits. Plus, I would lose all the matching TSP (401k) contributions that I will have received by that point, because it takes five years to be "vested." Clearly, this would not be good
   
   
2. The second-worst option would be to accept "Priority Placement." With this option, the Army would assign me to a job in the U.S. depending on what's available at that time. More than likely, it would be in a place that I don't particularly care about, doing something that I'm not interested in. And if I refuse whatever assignment I'm given, I'll have -- by default -- chosen the first, worst option.
   
   
3. My preferred choice would be to get a GS-12 Logistics Management Specialist position at the Rock Island Arsenal. Houses in the area are affordable, it would be a good place for professional development, I could begin treatment for my MS, and we would be near my family. Unfortunately, it would also involve a 10% pay cut and increased living expenses. We'd have to buy not only a house, but also two cars and enough furnture to fill whatever house we get.
   
   
4. If nothing materializes within six months, my next best alternative would be to extend here in Japan. It's not my preferred option, but it's still a great one. We live within walking distance to the kids' school. My commute is five minutes long. We can get by with a single car. We spend about $30 a month on gas. Japan is safe in terms of both crime and the COVID pandemic. The kids can play with others in the neighborhood without line-of-sight supervision. Plus, we would get continuation-of-overseas-tour benefits -- a free trip back to the U.S. for the whole family, during which I could begin treatment.

But there are downsides to staying in Japan that are starting to weigh on me.

My job seems to only exist because of bureacratic inefficiencies. Because we cannot establish what our real mission is, and we cannot refuse whatever we're expected to do, we require having people around who can handle the miscellaneous "ankle biters" that invariably come up. And without any guidance on "what we should do when we're not going anything," I am left to spend most of my days working on personal projects, not productive work.

"Why don't you offer to take on greaer responsibilities?" one might ask. Well, because I'm disinclined to waste my time on things that don't matter. And the things that *do* matter are handled by more senior people. Plus, I'm not interested in metaphorically "finding dragons to slay" if I'm not also given the authority to handle those responsibilities.

As it is, decisions in my workplace are highly centralized. That may change in the next six months as the director switches out (an opportunity), but the organizational climate within the section is a product of the organizational culture of the organization as a whole, and that hasn't changed at all. There's a greater risk that things will simply be more of the same, or -- God forbid -- worse.

In January, I'll get tenure. In March, I'll get my second annual evaluation. As I look back on what I've done over the past two years, I see an unsettling trend -- I was not hired to be a Planner, as my job title might imply. I was brought on board to be an action officer, so that other people could avoid being distracted by unimportant tasks.

I don't look forward to -- possibly -- three more years of the same.