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Never accept a counter-offer

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Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#41

Post by econner »

byoung2 wrote: post #36
fecak wrote: post #18

Recruiter here, almost 20 years. Do a search for articles warning about counteroffers and you'll find almost all are written by agency recruiters. Why is that? It's because agency recruiters lose probably millions in fees every year when candidates accept a counter. I have personally lost 30K on a single fee due to counteroffer on more than one occasion. It hurts quite a bit - that's a car - which is why if you accep…

My recruiter practically broke down in tears when I accepted a counteroffer in 2013. Counteroffers can be great tools to increase your salary, whether you accept or reject them. In my case it was purely about money. I was making $117k and I wanted a raise, but the company only wanted to give options. If it were an early stage Google or Uber, I'd go for it, but not this company. I wanted cash. They played the old "not…

Why did you quit to freelance?

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#42

Post by jimmywanger »

Counteroffers are poison for both the employee and the company.

The employee now knows that he could have gotten the same thing the employer is now offering before the counteroffer.

The employer knows that the employee is spending a non-trivial amount of time to interview and talk to other employers.

I agree there should be no trust here, but we are conditioned to think that there should be.

Exceptions aside (and you don't know if you're in one of those exceptions), a counter offer allows you to exist in a poisoned relationship for a few more months.

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#43

Post by user5994461 »

slg wrote: post #33
gozur88 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You got really lucky. Normally when a company extends a counter offer what they're doing is buying time to ease you out on their terms.

I always hear this, but where do you people work that this is the case? As some who has been on the other side of the table this was never how it worked. Losing a team member sucks. A counter offer is an attempt to avoid that. The idea that your boss would secretly interview your replacement before firing you just seems silly to me. At the most practical level doing something so cold hearted would send every other me…

That depends on the management culture. Some companies will not consider a raise unless you have another offer, some will refuse a raise no matter what you can get elsewhere, some will lie straight to your face to keep you some more and may even backstab you later.

I've seen most of the options in action. The workplace can be an evil place.

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#44

Post by jonaf »

fecak wrote: post #18

Recruiter here, almost 20 years. Do a search for articles warning about counteroffers and you'll find almost all are written by agency recruiters. Why is that? It's because agency recruiters lose probably millions in fees every year when candidates accept a counter. I have personally lost 30K on a single fee due to counteroffer on more than one occasion. It hurts quite a bit - that's a car - which is why if you accep…

You can make $30,000 USD for placing a person??? I'm in the wrong line of work.

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#45

Post by argonaut »

fecak wrote: post #18

Recruiter here, almost 20 years. Do a search for articles warning about counteroffers and you'll find almost all are written by agency recruiters. Why is that? It's because agency recruiters lose probably millions in fees every year when candidates accept a counter. I have personally lost 30K on a single fee due to counteroffer on more than one occasion. It hurts quite a bit - that's a car - which is why if you accep…

The author is not an agency recruiter. So this hardly seems relevant to his post.

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#46

Post by erik_landerholm »

Yeah, except most of the time, in my experience, employees rarely try to solve problem A. They may say something or be passive aggressive, but quickly give up and become disgruntled.

As someone who has been an engineer at all levels and now an exec at a public company, I rarely give counter offers in this situation. I think there are some cases where it can work, but in most cases; if someone wants to leave, you wish them the best and move on.

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#48

Post by morsch »

byoung2 wrote: post #36
fecak wrote: post #18

Recruiter here, almost 20 years. Do a search for articles warning about counteroffers and you'll find almost all are written by agency recruiters. Why is that? It's because agency recruiters lose probably millions in fees every year when candidates accept a counter. I have personally lost 30K on a single fee due to counteroffer on more than one occasion. It hurts quite a bit - that's a car - which is why if you accep…

My recruiter practically broke down in tears when I accepted a counteroffer in 2013. Counteroffers can be great tools to increase your salary, whether you accept or reject them. In my case it was purely about money. I was making $117k and I wanted a raise, but the company only wanted to give options. If it were an early stage Google or Uber, I'd go for it, but not this company. I wanted cash. They played the old "not…

[H]ow I would never work in this town again

I can see where the arguments about trust etc are coming from (not that I necessarily agree), but that one I don't get at all.

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#49

Post by enraged_camel »

Clubber wrote: post #26
fecak wrote: post #18

Recruiter here, almost 20 years. Do a search for articles warning about counteroffers and you'll find almost all are written by agency recruiters. Why is that? It's because agency recruiters lose probably millions in fees every year when candidates accept a counter. I have personally lost 30K on a single fee due to counteroffer on more than one occasion. It hurts quite a bit - that's a car - which is why if you accep…

I took a counter once. When you're miserable at a place, for whatever reason, a big pay raise will make you forget it for about 4 months, then you'll be miserable again. Life is too short to be miserable 8+ hours a day.

That's why the smart thing to do is to also ask for a change of position/responsibilities along with the counter-offer. It makes it less likely that you'll be miserable again after a while, and it also makes it easier for your boss to sell the idea upwards to his/her superiors (because it's not "i want us to pay him more to do the same stuff he's doing now.")

Re: Never accept a counter-offer

#50

Post by antirez »

I guess that if you want to go because salary is low but otherwise the work is fine, accepting a counter-offer is the best thing you can do :-) However if one does not like the company, to stay for the money may not be a good choice. However this is also true when you have to manage people, it's hardly a good thing to force people to stay at your company if they are unhappy, unless they just want to make more and they deserve it.
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