Where's the Party?

I left a perfectly good job where I was well recognized in January - as you described - for another company that threw money, incentives and "a great career move". I left it my company with a bang, kept my relationships going and kept in contact with my boss. Good thing.

The company I left for had a horrible onboarding strategy - right out of a textbook -- the job did not turn out to be what was originally pitched to me during the interviews, and my new manager was non-existent (onboarding obviously was not this person's forte). Looked around and saw equally disengaged coworkers and knew I had to leave.

I contacted my former employer, and they went out of their way to get me back -- it took a while because of the red tape, but by July I resigned from the nightmare job and returned back to a place where I was respected and treated well.

Moral of the story: The company made a very foolish assumption that after accepting the "big money and well-spun job description", I wouldn't consider leaving (in the short term, that is). It's all about leadership and onboarding.