COUNTEROFFER INFORMATION

 Counteroffer Facts

Accepting a counteroffer is also known as a "career suicide" move.

When you go to resign from your current employer, what do you think is the first thing your boss is thinking? 

This is what they are thinking. So YOU went behind my back and were not loyal to me or the company and was out seeking another opportunity on company time. Okay, now you're in for a fight!

Think about it. Why would they have to wait for you to resign to pay you what you are worth? They've been taking advantage of you forever.

When an employee resigns, two things can happen:

1- The boss who is respectful of what you’ve done for the company over the years is someone who would like to see you succeed in your career will say, "I am sure you’ve evaluated the new opportunity and I wish you the best of luck!"

2- The boss who is looking out for him or herself and the company and not caring about your future career will stop you from growing by making you a counteroffer and making your decision an emotionally stressful situation. The counteroffer is meant to be a temporary Band-Aid on the problem of your lack of loyalty and trust until they can find a new loyal employee.

What you can expect is your boss telling you that they were just talking about giving you a raise and more responsibilities, or whatever you've been complaining about that you lack in your position. They will cry and beg you to stay to give them time to replace you. 

Your boss is saving their own ass. If they cared about you, you wouldn’t have had to go out and get another job offer to get what you are worth.

The flowers that your boss presented to you look real, smell real and they even feel real, but believe me, you will see that they are fake, and as much as you may believe that he loves you, you showed him disloyalty and went behind his back looking for a job on company time. That he will never forget.

The person who accepts a counteroffer is making an emotional decision rather than a logical decision and everyone knows that decisions made on emotions are not good for anyone, but that’s how your boss will play on your emotions and mind.

It is mostly the young and immature who accept counteroffers because they don’t know any better and they make the emotional decision rather than the logical decision.

When you resign and then accept a counteroffer, it is like putting a gun to your boss’s head to ask them for more money, and that is wrong. You just scarred yourself for life with your current boss. They will forgive but they will never forget. 

How would you feel if your spouse cheated on you? You will never trust them again and your relationship will never be the same. You may forgive your spouse, but you will never forget.

When you are out sick or on vacation, they will be wondering if you are interviewing again behind their back. The situation NEVER changes, and the relationship will NEVER be the same.

Once your boss gets you to accept the counteroffer, he or she will go behind your back to replace you with a loyal employee! I've had companies come to me to recruit for an employee that just accepted a counteroffer! It happens more thank you can believe.

Companies like to fire; they don’t like to get fired (which is how they feel when an employee leaves or resigns).

Again, you shouldn’t have to go look for another job to get what you are worth, should you?

The truth is the company must look after themselves FIRST and cover their own ass as they don’t want anyone to upset their apple cart.

Thinking about using a potential employer's job offer to get your current company to counter and pay you more money?

Stop right there.

Using another job offer as a bargaining chip may be tempting, but too often, it ends badly. If you want a raise, then negotiate it on your own merits before you consider a new job opportunity. If you don't get what you want, you should prepare to move on.

Here's why:

1. Employers often make counteroffers in a moment of panic. ("We can't have Joe leave right now! We have that big conference next month.") But after the initial relief passes, you may find your relationship with your employer and your standing with the company has fundamentally changed. You're now the one who was looking to leave. You're no longer part of the inner circle, and you might be at the top of the list if your company needs to make cutbacks in the future.

2. Even worse, your company might just want time to search for a replacement, figuring that it's only a matter of time until you start looking around again. You might turn down your other offer and accept your employer's counteroffer only to find yourself pushed out afterward. In fact, the rule of thumb among recruiters is that 70 to 80 percent of people who accept counteroffers either leave or are let go within a year. FACT!

3. There's a reason you started job-searching in the first place. While more money is always a motivator, more often, there are also other factors that drove you to look: personality fit, dislike of your boss, size of the company, boredom with the work, lack of recognition, insane deadlines, whatever it might have been. Those factors aren't going to change and will likely start bothering you again as soon as the glow from your raise wears off. This happens more often than you can imagine!

4. Even if you get more money out of your company now, think about what it took to get it. You needed to have one foot out the door to get paid the wage you wanted, and there's no reason to think that future salary increases will be any easier. The next time you want a raise, you might even be refused altogether on the grounds that "we just gave you that big increase when you were thinking about leaving."

5. You may be told to take the other offer, even if you don't really want it--and then you'll have to follow through. Using another offer as a bluff is a really dangerous game.

6. Good luck getting that new employer or Recruiter that you’ve worked with to ever consider working with you again. 

Alison Green writes the popular "Ask a Manager" blog, where she dispenses advice on career, job search, and management issues. She's also the author of Managing to Change the World: The Nonprofit Leader's Guide to Getting Results and former chief of staff of a successful nonprofit organization, where she oversaw day-to-day staff management, hiring, firing, and employee development.

Here are eight more reasons why accepting a counteroffer is usually not in the candidate’s best interests.

1.  Statistics show that if you accept a counteroffer, it is highly probable that you will be back on the job market within 6 months.

2. The underlying reasons that caused you to consider a change are likely to repeat themselves in the future.

3. What kind of company waits until you threaten to resign before they agree to pay you what you’re worth?

4. Where is the money for the counteroffer coming from? Could it just be an advance on your next raise? Are you ever likely to get another raise again?

5. Your employer is now aware that you are unhappy. From this day on, your loyalty will always be in question.

6. When promotion time comes around, your employer will remember who was loyal, and who was not.

7. When times get tough and your employer makes cutbacks, the people with inflated salaries and a perceived lack of commitment will be the first to go.

8. Your company is likely to be looking for your replacement immediately, in case you decide to resign again.