WHY YOU SHOULD NEVER ACCEPT A COUNTER OFFER
If you’re a talented professional, don’t be surprised if one day you find your present employer making you a “counteroffer” when you tell them you’ve found another job. Even if recent requests for a promotion, raise or more responsibility have all been denied, suddenly you find your managers are “willing to deal” BEWARE.
Survey show that 8 out of 10 employees who accept counteroffers don’t complete the following year with that employer. No matter what your new position or salary is: the conditions which caused you to look elsewhere in the first place will likely continue to haunt you!
Although your company’s desire to retain you may be genuinely motivated by a sound respect for your abilities, there may be less noble motives behind this counteroffer as well.
Job seekers often discover – too late- that a company has used a counteroffer to “buy itself some time” to keep you on board while they begin to search for an individual to replace you.
Career changes, like most ventures in life, are scary. Most of us would rather continue to live with the situation we know than to risk a change that might or might not work out, Even though 9 times out of 10 it is Even better for you! That is why bosses know they can usually keep someone around by “saying the right things.”
Before you succumb to a tempting counteroffer, consider the following universal truths:
- Any situation is suspect if you are forced to seek an outside offer to get a RAISE you deserve or better position.
- Not matter what you company says while making you a counteroffer, they will always think of you as no longer a “team player”, You may lose the confidence of your co-workers.
- All reasons for wanting to leave are probably still valid. Conditions may become more tolerable in the short run, providing you get the things you asked for. But in the end no much will really change.
- Counteroffers are usually nothing more than a stall tactic to give your employer more time to replace you.
- Counteroffers are a reaction to you putting in your notice to QUIT! Will you have to
Threaten to quit every time you desire advancement or a raise.
So when you resign focus on making sure you tell your company it is not a personal decision but a business decision. If you say you’ve found a better opportunity elsewhere, they most likely will take you at your word and begin planning your going-away lunch!
Also remember the other company you are dealing with. Accepting a counteroffer will almost surely damage your reputation with them. Potential new colleagues and co-workers could feel that you have been using them to gain a better bargaining position.