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Reasons to NOT Accept A Counter Offer

Even if the boss begs you to stay, head for the exit
H.J. Cummins, Star Tribune

Just in case the people predicting a healthier job market are right, career counselors are busy giving job hunters this warning: Beware the temptation of the counteroffer.

If this happens to you -- another employer offers you more money, and upon hearing your happy news your boss offers you even more money to stay -- do not accept, the counselors are saying. Unanimously, and emphatically.

Some folks remember when using outside job offers to get a raise was standard procedure. In fact, years ago employers sort of saw that as letting their employees do their salary research for them: So, what are you worth on the open market? said Nick Corcodilos, the New Jersey-based author of www.asktheheadhunter.com.

That time is past.

Employers are still making counteroffers, Corcodilos said. But these days they feel tricked, they have to scavenge the money from already-stretched budgets, and they'll never see you in the same light again, Corcodilos said.

One way or another they'll make you pay, he said: At the very least that bump in pay will replace your next raise.

The story of one Corcodilos reader illustrates what's at risk: This man wrote that his employer had put off his ambitions for four years, saying there was no money to promote him. He found another job, but when his boss came back with the offer of a big promotion and raise, he decided to stay put. Since then, he said, the company kept giving him more and more work, his managers belittled him, and then they sent him a new employee to train, just in case "something happens" to him, they said.

"I think all that is relatively common, partly because money at American companies is really tight, " Corcodilos said.

"It's a pretty safe bet your employer will immediately start planning to replace you," said George Blomgren, the Milwaukee-based author of www.employment.typepad.com. "A couple of months later, you'll find you're not on the Christmas bonus list. And any opportunities? They're not considering you. You're a malcontent."

The worst is to accept the outside offer, then accept the counteroffer, and then renege on your first promise, Blomgren said.

"You'll be known as somebody trying to play each side off the other," he said. "Nobody's going to respect you. And people's reputations do precede them. You never know who knows who out there."

Counteroffers can backfire because employees' unhappiness is often about more than money, Corcodilos said.

"If you're going job hunting because you're that unhappy, no amount of money is going to change that," he said.! "Like this reader. He's been told for four years that there's not enough money to promote him. So what has suddenly changed? Only that he put the company on the spot."

Counteroffers don't make sense for companies, either, Corcodilos said. Giving you a raise is a lot cheaper than replacing you, but the soured atmosphere makes it only a short-term solution, he said. Good managers don't let it get that far, he said. Instead of exit interviews they give meaningful performance reviews, and stay ahead of what employees need to feel appreciated.

In the exception-that-proves-the-rule category, Corcodilos does know of one happy ending for someone who accepted a counteroffer.

His wife.

After a long while at a company, she felt she wasn't getting the kind of opportunities she had hoped for, he said. She got another job offer, and she decided to take it.

But her managers told her they genuinely didn't want to lose her, they came with a convincing plan for a bright future there, and she stayed. "She needed to know upper management was paying attention, and they scheduled a meeting with her and the president of this very large division," Corcodilos said.

"It said a lot to her."