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I’m not planning on leaving my current job anytime in the near future, but having resigned from other positions, I’ve been counter-offered better pay, better conditions, or better benefits in attempts to “keep me on board.” I’ve turned down every counter offer in the past and here are my reasons why:
1. At this point, I’ve made my current employer aware of my intentions to find another position. My boss now knew that I was unhappy long enough to search for, apply for, interview for, and accept a new position. I’m sure I didn’t make my frustrations known to him in a way that he took seriously. Now, with egg on his face, because he assumed I would never leave, my boss was in the unenviable position of having to scramble to keep me. If I had chosen to stay, he would have resented me and questioned my loyalty. Not only that, but taking a day off here and there would put me under his suspicion that I was interviewing again. Who wants to work under those conditions?
2. I would burn the bridge with my prospective new employer. If I had accepted the new offer, my new employer was expecting me to show up. My new employer had made announcements about me coming on board, had canceled open job notices and advertisements, and had arranged for training. In other cases, a new employer may have released the person you’re going to replace. If your new employer pulled the rug out from under YOU by rescinding the offer, how would you feel? Don’t pull the rug from under them. It’s like leaving someone at the alter.
3. When the time came to decide who would be considered for a promotion, my current employer would definitely remember who almost went to work elsewhere. Many times, bosses reward blind loyalty more than anything else. Who do YOU think would have gotten the next promotion or assigned the next big project? It wouldn’t have been me!
4. When the economy tanks, chances are that I would have been at the top of the list for personnel cutbacks. He already knew I was unhappy and didn’t really want to be there. Why would he keep me on the payroll when this would be his perfect chance to terminate me and it not look like revenge?
5. If I accepted the counter-offer, I would have been just a little trophy, bought with some pocket change. This would’ve been more than little blow to my pride. You may disagree, but I don’t want to work somewhere that I’m not valued properly.
6. Since this company had salary guidelines, it was possible that I just got my next raise. My raise after that would have probably disgusted me, but by then I would have burned a bridge, right? See #2 above. Not only that, but the bookkeeper was continually complaining about how much she was paid and she wrote the payroll checks for the entire company. I would never have heard the end of it.
7. There would have been a high likelihood that my boss would start looking for my replacement — at a cheaper price. No one should overestimate their own value to any organization. Virtually everyone can be replaced. My “new” value to my “old” company wouldn’t mean anything. It could mean that they were just passing time until they could replace me on their schedule.
8. Would anything have really changed? Was it ONLY the money that caused me to start looking for a better position? (no) Would getting a raise make me more willing to endure the circumstances that prompted me to accept a new position or would I just lie down, roll over, and take the little doggie biscuit?
9. Some statistics show that 75% to 90% of those who accept counter offers quit within six months anyway. . . or are terminated within one year. Why would I want to be in THAT position? Talk about going from the frying pan into the fire. A common investing rhyme is: The trend is your friend. In other words, look for trends up and stick with them or look for trends down and stay away. The trend on those accepting a counter-offer is down, down, down.
10. In my eyes, my value was established at the new company. They thought I was worth a lot more than my then current company. Why was I having to threaten to leave before I could get paid what I was worth? My co-workers knew I was leaving and it was more than a little fun hearing them discussing what they thought I was getting paid at the new company. If I had stayed because I accepted a counter-offer with more pay, I believe they would have ended up resenting me. People think of payroll as a zero sum game, if one person gets a huge raise, it means everyone else gets a small one. Whether it’s true or not does not matter. What people believe is what matters.
In my opinion, accepting a counter-offer is career suicide. Your boss is probably thinking that he or she will be blamed for your unhappiness and the much coveted annual bonus may now be in jeopardy. Desperation sinks in and you start hearing phrases like:
One phrase I heard was, “I have my vacation coming up in 6 weeks. Is there any way you could stay until I get back?” (True story)
My advice: stick with your plan. Make a list of everything that irks you and read it back to yourself before you go tell your boss that you’re giving a two week notice. I mean list every little thing. My list was 86 items long. But I still almost caved in. After all, he had that vacation planned for months! 
What others are saying:
Tech Republic Weigh these factors before you accept a counter offer.
The Frugal Dad Accepting company counter offer can be a risky move.
An alternate view:
Recruiting.com Accepting a counter offer - not always bad?
Technorati Tags: life, career, blog, weblog, counter offer, job, promotion
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Allen Taylor
Know what you want and “go” for it with gusto!
And don’t be wishy-washy…..stick to your decision!
Also, #6 is a wake-up shake-up!
Hey Jeff, thanks for dropping by (LOVE your new site btw)
It seems you’re one of those who got to learn by doing. It sinks in stronger that way but is sure is disappointing when you’re in the middle of it. I’ll bet you never break that rule again!
Very insightful. Moving forward and moving backward are perfect analogies. Thanks for commenting.
Hello there LP. No wishy-washy here!
You are exactly right. That’s why I included that illustration in this post!
Thanks for stopping by and I look forward to your comments in the future.
Hello Allen. Thanks for commenting. Glad to hear that Technorati is keeping up with me. Thank you very much for adding me to your RSS feed. I really appreciate that plus being able to hear from readers like you.
I apply the same logic to mortgages - I let my last institution get the first chance for my business (and they blew it) so I went elsewhere. I’m sure that once I had the other offer ready they would have matched it.
By the way - the first comment (Allen Taylor) is spam - I’ve seen the exact same comment on several blogs with either the investerworld link or a debt company.
Mike
[...] 10 Reasons I won’t accept a job counter offer @ The Wisdom Journal When the time came to decide who would be considered for a promotion, my current employer would definitely remember who almost went to work elsewhere. Many times, bosses reward loyalty more than anything else. [...]
As for the vacation, I did postpone my leaving beyond when I had to at the last job (I gave them 3 weeks notice) because one of those weeks was my boss’s vacation. As the only other person in the office, I knew she’d need me to cover for her. And she might have needed time to find a newer person. And that newer person couldn’t have covered because they wouldn’t know everything I did. I tried not to burn bridges I didn’t have to.
[...] 10 Reasons I Won’t Accept A Job Counter Offer @ The Wisdom Journal [...]
Hey thanks for stopping by.
I would have been happy to stay for a couple of weeks but I was asked to put my plans (and life!) on hold for 6+ weeks. Two or three I could have lived with, but six???
I’ve stayed in touch since then and don’t think I burned a bridge because I helped train my replacement. The last time I checked, he was doing fabulous and had taken a lateral move into sales and had become one of the company’s top salesmen.
[...] 10 Reasons I Won’t Accept a Job Counter Offer - An excellent post about why it’s not a good idea to accept a counter offer from your current employer when you’ve decided to leave. [...]
[...] The Wisdom Journal - 10 Reasons I Won’t Accept a Job Counter Offer. [...]
[...] 10 Reasons I Won’t Accept a Job Counter Offer - Changing jobs is often a way to get more money, but be careful how you react when you tell your [...]
[...] 10 Reasons I Won’t Accept a Job Counter Offer by Ron @ The Wisdom Journal. Ron has a lot of professional experience and his thoughts are extremely well presented in this article. I met Ron a couple days before I resigned and we talked about a few of these topics. Talking with him in person really helped solidify my decision. [...]