The Counter-Offer

How and Why to Avoid the Counter-Offer

If you are good at what you do, there is a likely chance that when you resign, your employer will try to convince you to stay. Their reasons are obvious: finding and training a replacement for you will be expensive and time consuming; the company may lose money due to lost business from your work not getting done; other employees may be influenced to look for another job if they see someone else making a successful change. All of these reasons mean that it is in the company's best interest to make you stay.

The company may lure you with more money (base, bonus, stock, etc.), a promotion or some other change to your job that may be desirable, or promises that changes may come in the future. If you allow yourself to be open to such suggestions, you will be sorely tempted to reverse the decision you made for the best objective reasons and to do what is not in your best interest. Ask yourself - "If I was worth it, why didn't they offer this to me before?"

There are at least three reasons that a counter offer can be very attractive:

• Your emotions may already be stressed by the thought of leaving friends and coworkers.
• Change brings with it fear and some uncertainty.
• When your employer wants you to stay, it is a great ego boost.
• If you entertain the offer you will likely succumb to it.

So what is so bad about getting more money or a big promotion with your current employer versus making the change? As tempting as it may sound, let's think about what it means.

First, you may no longer be considered to be a person who can be trusted. When it comes to critical future assignments, the management may not be comfortable depending on you. What effects will that have on your career?

Second, once the management has solved the immediate problem of your leaving, They may work you out of the critical path and let you go when the time is right for the company. So you may find yourself relieved of this job that is what you wanted in the first place, but now unemployed with no jobs in sight because you were no longer looking. Being unemployed and looking for a job puts you in a much different situation.

Third, the reasons that caused you to want to leave your job are not going to change because you get more money or a promotion. If you let the counter-offer convince you to stay, the same factors that caused you to want to leave will likely have the same effect again in the near future.