Counter-Offer
What your company and your boss are thinking right now:
- This couldn't come at a worse time. I am spread too thin as it is, my department is already behind schedule, and this going to hurt morale.
- My review is just around the corner, and this loss is going to take a toll on my performance.
- It is not going to be easy to replace this person on such short notice, and my department's year-to-date performance was setting me up for a nice bonus.
- If I can keep this person in place just until I find a suitable replacement, that would make my life a lot easier and might just salvage my vacation plans.
What your boss will actually say to you. Some possible examples would be:
- I'm really shocked to hear you were this unhappy, let's put our heads together to see what we can come up with so you will want to stay.
- This really hurts, especially since I had just worked out the details of your upcoming promotion, but upper management asked me to keep it confidential until next month.
- I was going to give you a raise next quarter. How about we make it retroactive to the beginning of this quarter? I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the size of the increase I have arranged for you.
- I don't want to see you make a mistake here; I have heard some disturbing information about your prospective employer.
- After all I have done for you; this is how you repay me.
What will happen if you take the counter-offer?
- Regardless of what a company says when it is extending a counteroffer, you will, from that moment forward, be considered a fidelity risk. You will lose your status as a team player and your place in the inner circle. This will come into play in future decisions regarding promotions and career-enhancing opportunities.
- Statistics show that more than 80% of those accepting counter-offers leave, or are terminated, within 6-12months.
- Counteroffers are usually nothing more than a means of stalling your departure to give your employer time to figure out how to replace you.
- When the word gets out that you resigned and then accepted a counteroffer to stay, your relationship with your peer group in the workplace will become strained as some measure of resentment will begin to surface.
Ten Reasons for not accepting a Counter-offer:
- What type of company do you work for if you have to threaten to resign before they give you what you are worth?
- From where is the money for the counteroffer coming? Is it your next raise, early? (All companies have strict wage and salary guidelines which must be followed).
- Your company will immediately start looking for a new person at a lower salary price.
- You have now made your employer aware that you are unhappy. From this day on, your loyalty will always be in question.
- When promotion time comes around, your employer will remember who was loyal, and who wasn't.
- When times get tough, your employer will begin the cutback with you.
- The same circumstances that now cause you to consider a change will repeat themselves in the future, even if you accept a counteroffer.
- Statistics show that if you accept a counteroffer, the probability of voluntarily leaving in six months or being let go within one year is extremely high.
- Accepting a counteroffer is an insult to your intelligence and a blow to your personal pride, knowing that you were bought.
- Once the word gets out, the relationship that you now enjoy with your co-workers will never be the same. You will lose the personal satisfaction of peer group acceptance
3 Main Points to Remember:
- Where did the money or responsibility come from?
Was it your next raise - just early? Will you be limited in the future? Will you have to threaten to quit to get your next raise, or might your (cheaper) replacement be sought out ASAP?
- You'll never be considered a team player again.
You've demonstrated your unhappiness, or your lack of blind loyalty, and will be perceived as having committed blackmail to gain a raise. Many employers will hold a grudge at the next review period, and you may be at the top of the next Reduction-in-Force "hit list". Someone once described it as, "Like an adulterous affair that has been discovered, the broken trust in never fully recovered."
- Statistics show that more than 80% of those accepting counter-offers leave, or are terminated, within 6-12 months.
Two things are certain:
- You can expect a counter-offer, and
- You should hold a steady course from the beginning, and stick with your decision to move on to a bigger and better future.