Counteroffers

Cautions of the Counteroffer

Quitting a job is never easy. Career changes are tough enough and the anxieties of leaving a comfortable job, friends and environment for an unknown opportunity can easily cloud anyone’s judgment. But what should you do when your current employer “muddles the waters” even more by asking you to stay.

A counteroffer is an inducement from your current employer to get you to stay after you’ve announced your intentions to accept another job elsewhere. And, in recent years, counteroffers have practically become the norm.

If you are considering a counteroffer, remain focused on your primary objectives. Why were you looking for another job to begin with? If an employee is happy with their current job and/or salary, they’re usually not paving the road with resumes. So, oftentimes a counteroffer that promises more money never really remedies the real reasons for wanting to move on in the first place.

Apart from a short-term bandage on the problem, nothing will change within the company and when the dust settles you can find yourself back in the same old rut. Recruiters report that more than 80% of those who accept counteroffers leave, begin looking for another job, or are “let go” within six to twelve months after announcing their intentions.

Counteroffers are certainly flattering and make an employee question their initial decision to leave. But oftentimes they are merely stall tactics used by bosses and companies to alleviate an upheaval a departing employee can cause. High turnover also brings a boss’s management skills into question. His reaction is to do what’s necessary until he’s better prepared to replace you.

What kind of company do you work for if you have to threaten to resign before they pay you what you’re worth?