Running out of options

This afternoon will see two important things happen for me at work - performance appraisal for 2007, and discussion on what role/job I want to do in 2008. For the first, I am not very hopeful since I frankly feel that I did not do much last year at work. Partly because of my own lack of interest, but mostly due to the unstable work environment. On paper I did have a boss for the first 8 months of my role but I hardly ever saw him. I had taken up the challenging role, hoping to learn and gain knowledge from him, but that never happened. And then he left abruptly - while I was out of the country - without bothering to let me know when he very well knew I wouldn't be here on the day of his departure. I feel it smacks of irresponsibility from all angles.

The bigger and more difficult issue at hand is what role do I want to take up in 2008? This has been a constant source of tension for me for the past few months. Frankly, there is nothing in this organization that appeals to me - given the kind of people and politics, any role seems to be a waste of time. But I got to do something - not only for bread and butter, but also because I cannot live with the fact that I am getting a salary for doing nothing. I would like to earn what I am being paid for. So far, the only time I have been happy (a very rare thing) at work is when I worked in a development team with a few other people who were motivated and driven. Such people are a rarity here, and if they do happen to be here by mistake, they leave soon, given the amount of unnecessary politics that plagues people. Other than that, it is the same mess everywhere within this department. Or is it true of the company in general? Where do I go now? My heart says that I should just leave this department and try something completely new - new domain, new role, new colleagues, new seat! But would that necessarily advance my long term career? Or should I not care, since whatever I do in these 6 years is not going to help my future career anyway? Should I just give up the technical field and take up one of those project mgmt positions? Or should I go into sales, which here pretty much means "selling without understanding what the department does, and then let the delivery team bear all the shit". Or should I go join one of those sexy-sounding but flaky cost centers inside the company whose job scope is very fluid? I have so many equal choices out there, yet I feel I am running out of options. And I still have 33.5 months more left to serve! I got to find something that can make me happy - if not monetarily, then by virtue of the role itself. 3 years is a long time to remain unhappy, isn't it?