Eh this thinking is way too one-sided. Assume your boss is right and your performance is not as good as what would be expected of someone earning your salary...

Eh this thinking is way too one-sided. Assume your boss is right and your performance is not as good as what would be expected of someone earning your salary... you might manage to jump ship to another company earning more money but that does not mean you will be able to keep your higher paying job for a particularly long time. If there is a better offer on deck, and you know your skillset well enough to really know that you're worth it, then absolutely go for it. But if there's a better offer on deck and you have performance issues, then you may be trading in long term benefit for a short term benefit and substantially increasing your risk. It's not as simple as you're making it seem, where an offer for more money comes up and you should just jump on it as if the only factor to consider is guilt.