What kind of grievance do you think I’d have, Pip? (on a personal level I have many but on a formal level I’m not sure. And no there aren’t many protections here, unless there was something like harassment).
I had a long text chat with some close friends here earlier about it - they are the first real life people I’ve told. They are also both ex-teammates and have left my org in the last 3 years on some positive and less positive terms. They both think I should take it and get the best money I can to get back home (while cussing out my boss, which I appreciated).
But reading your replies and sitting with it a bit makes me think they are really taking the piss and screwing me over. I can’t help but wonder if they would offer the other candidates this deal - take the role but lose your job security? If that’s the deal then they should put it in the job advert for an internal only posting. It’s a shitty move that they are trying to make sweeter with the one thing they have over me. I’ve seen them (and other teams) do this to people so I’m not surprised - and my manager’s raison d’être is having power over people
So I should have seen it coming. WJ’s point about a secondment is a good one, as that’s more how it was positioned. As for my current job, I am ready for a change. There is a LOT of it, although it’s not always the most intellectually stimulating. Just a lot of volume and I’ve gotten efficient at it. The only growth seems to be just taking more stuff, not qualitatively different stuff (like the things my manager said they’d get someone else in my post to do
) I do like what my wider team does and being part of a big mission. The new role would continue that, give me different exposure (much more external facing), and might open up more job opportunities down the road - but it is a VERY competitive sector and most people doing it have a lot more experience than I do (at a similar seniority level). Is 11 months enough time to find a new job? Maybe. A good new job in London/UK, or Europe (ha!)? Probably not. It’s not as if I could spend all that time job hunting! Frankly, one of the reasons I left the UK was for a better salary, and I am acutely aware that nearly anything else I did would be a heavy salary cut in the UK. Probably at least 50%, optimistically. See prior comments re getting a mortgage.
So I might get one of the things I really want, and a shot at a different role if I take it and get relocated. But I’d find it really hard to achieve some of the other things I’d hoped to be able to do on a personal level without job security. And I know I’m sitting here relatively comfortably but I’ve worked fucking hard for that and there’s a bit of me that feels like it could be going backwards, let alone sideways.
She can’t believe that by for getting a temporary role on my own team that he’s effectively telling me to resign to take, and that they wouldn’t just second me into it (as WJ and others have mentioned). 
I've only interviewed for one job I really wanted in the last six months, and got told i was great but "overqualified and you'll get bored too quickly" 
