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When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

blog.smartbear.com

11–20 of 49 posts

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#11
One of my first bosses told me a story of how he responded to the CTO asking him if he were looking for a new job. He said,

"Yeah! Always. How do either of us know what my market value is if I don't? It's only fair."

I thought that was brilliant. No he was never fired and he stayed there quite some time after that. :)

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#12
You should go. Accepting a counteroffer is a no-win situation.

If the counteroffer is amazing, it will poison your relationships with everybody in the company: colleagues will resent you for getting what they will see as a golden ticket when they didn't, and managers will resent you for what they will interpret as mercenary tendencies -- i.e. you're just waiting for someone to come along with an even better offer before you sell them out. So you'll have to work with a bunch of people whose opinion of you has just dropped through the floor.

And if the counteroffer isn't amazing, why would you consider taking it in the first place?

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#13
Talk to your current employer before seeking, if that's an option. You shouldn't have to seek another job to get a raise/promotion/change from your current employer. In my opinion, seeking or accepting a counter-offer is unprofessional.

Companies should be proactive about keeping their employees engaged, challenged, and relatively happy.

Whatever you do, keep the connections you've made--don't burn bridges. The new opportunity may not be all it's cracked up to be, and it will be nice to have some people to call when you're on the hunt again.

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good way to put it, the "relationship". Two people are dating, one is an alcoholic. The other says, "I'm leaving, we've talked about your drinking 100 times and nothing changes so I'm leaving you. Bye." The drunk says, "oh no, stay with me and I'll stop drinking!" Does that situation ever turn out well?

Well. In this case, the company could offer money, and maybe even contractual guarantees of continued employment. If structured properly these may be worth more than empty promises.

Sure, but usually money isn't the root cause, and who wants guaranteed employment at a place they despise?

A person with a solid job that isn't on the chopping block (presumed because of the presence of a counteroffer) isn't job-shopping for a 10% bump.

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#16

From my experience, an employer should only counter-offer if they're truly desparate. Just like this article says, the employee has already decided to leave once, it's not going to take alot to get them to decided to leave again. In addition, though, counter-offering one employee signals to others that they can route around the usual process for promotions and raises by coming in with an offer of their own. I worked…

> Everyone else in the office that wanted a raise or promotion now knew what they had to do to get raises: find another job and bluff.

In this case it sounds like a problem with the company not giving promotions / raises until it's too late.

I think companies and managers must always look introspectively and see what they are doing wrong that is causing people to leave, and how they can improve the situation.

Often times, drastic changes might be necessary to the structure / day-to-day operations of a team if too many people in one department are leaving.

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well. In this case, the company could offer money, and maybe even contractual guarantees of continued employment. If structured properly these may be worth more than empty promises.

Sure, but usually money isn't the root cause, and who wants guaranteed employment at a place they despise? A person with a solid job that isn't on the chopping block (presumed because of the presence of a counteroffer) isn't job-shopping for a 10% bump.

Completely agree - look at what is the root problem here. Getting a higher salary and stay, is just delaying the issue.

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#18
There is no "one size fits all" or binary answer to this. It really depends on the individual case. I have seen both (staying vs going) happen to me/family and in either case, it has been good and/or bad.

If you love working at the current place, you have a great relationship with your boss/team and your only issue is money, then a good counter-offer may not be a bad idea. In fact, many times it is the only way to get a raise unfortunately. Consider the alternative. You might be making ok money but you don't like your team/boss/company at all, then do not take the counter offer even if they offer you more. You never know how it will turn out later on.

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#19
>For his part, Hurwitz himself resigned from a job at one point. He turned down a counteroffer from his boss. Six months later, he quit his new job. He got his old job back, in part because of his decision to turn down the counteroffer. “The boss told me it was because I hadn’t played games and had acted ethically,” Hurwitz said.

Wot? His company gave him a counteroffer with the attitude that accepting their offer would be unethical?

Re: When You Get a Job Counteroffer: Should You Stay or Should You Go?

#20
post #9

I think that an important step is to pre-empt the counter-offer. When you even start to consider another opportunity, think about why you actually want to move to the new opportunity. Is it that you need more money? Is it that you want to work on a different kind of project? Is it that you need more stimulation? Then go to your employer, and without bringing up the other opportunity, see if they are willing to make t…

Absolutely the right approach.

You owe it to yourself and to your employer to be honest with them. If you think you deserve more money, a new manager, a better project, etc. then ask. You shouldn't say you'll leave if you don't get it. You just lay out your reasons and make a simple request.

Also, it's important to start these conversations early. If you want more money and are ready to quit within 1 month if you don't get it, you are asking too late. If you can't stand working for your manager for 1 more day and you haven't told anyone, you're too late.

When you start having these wants, it's important to bring them up. "I'd like to be on track to be promoted within 1 year, how can I do this?" Stay on top of this subject with your manager. If you have problems with your manager, amicably let him know how you two could work better together. Make a few efforts at it. If it doesn't work then you let a higher-up(s) know and leave it to them.

If you're proactive early about what you want from your job then you'll either get what you want or save time finding out that you won't get it. It will also lead to a very easy decision to stay/leave a job.

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