The Truth About Counter-Offers
In this blog post we will consider the surprising facts concerning people who accept counter-offers from their current employers instead of taking a new job outside the company.
Once you have accepted an offer for a new job, and submit your resignation to your current employer, it may come as a surprise to you to receive a counter-offer from the place you plan to leave. They will often offer you a raise in salary, a promotion, additional benefits and perks. In many cases, the deal can even be sweeter than the offer that you have accepted elsewhere. Combined with the feelings that you may have about leaving the place where you’ve been for some time, leaving behind people that you have come to know and like, a counter-offer can be a severe temptation.
Statistically, however, as many as seventy to eighty per cent of people who accept counter-offers are looking for a new job within twelve months. This surprising fact is due to many different factors, all of which are logical and might actually have occurred to you, had you given the counter-offer the thought and consideration that you gave your initial offer.
Some of the factors responsible for this statistic have to do with the employees who accept a counter-offer. If there were conditions at work that drove you to look for another job, despite promises from management, those conditions are not likely to change. Organizations evolve slowly, and change is effected in stages, and for a very good reason.
To suddenly alter the corporate environment may very well affect a company’s profitability, and the bottom line responsibility of management is to maintain that profitability. Unless a change is guaranteed to increase the bottom line, chances are it will not be implemented. Similarly, if there are personality conflicts at work, there is little chance that those people will suddenly disappear. You will still be spending the better part of every working day in circumstances or with people that make you unhappy.
Although an employer will make a counter-offer to keep you in the heat of the moment, their perspective on the situation may shift over time. They may come to distrust you because you planned to quit. They can see you as disloyal or greedy. They may even come to believe that you used the other offer as a device to manipulate them into giving you more money or a better title. There have also been some cases where the employer has come to regard an employee who accepted a counter-offer as someone who is turning other employees against them and trying to influence others to resign as well.
Even though it is clearly a bad idea to accept a counter-offer in most cases, there is considerable pressure at the time to accept. Employers will use emotional blackmail to try and get you to stay in your job, referring to you as a ‘member of the family,’ or telling you that they can’t replace you. For these reasons, receiving a counter-offer is gratifying to your ego.
You will also have feelings about leaving your friends and acquaintances, some of which you may have known for years. It is also stressful to begin a new job. Any major life change gives rise to fear and uncertainty. It is no simple matter just to ignore these feelings, and many find it much easier to accept the counter-offer.
It will not be long, however, before you start to see the consequences. People may treat you differently. You may find yourself excluded from key, mission-critical processes, and assigned to less important projects. Once these conditions occur, it is time to look for another job again, or you may find yourself unemployed with no foreseeable opportunities.
There are some fundamental, concrete reasons not to accept a counter-offer: The underlying cause for your seeking a new job will not change. Only the money will have improved. Seventy-five per cent of those who accept a counter-offer are fired, most of them within six months. Even though you chose to stay with the company, the fact that you initially sought to leave the company creates a “black mark” on your personal record. Your loyalty will always be in question.
You will likely be the first let go in any subsequent layoffs. Working conditions may significantly worsen as a result of management’s new perception of you. Your opportunities for growth and advancement within that organization won’t change. In fact, you may find that future career opportunities with that company will likely be drastically reduced. And management’s attitude may harden, thinking “everyone has a price and now we know yours”.
The best advice we can offer is aimed not at refusing a counter-offer, though if one is made, that is the course we recommend, but rather at avoiding the complications by preventing a counter-offer from being presented in the first place.
When you resign, make sure you do so formally, in writing. Make it very clear in your resignation that your decision is final, and ask that all parties respect that decision. You may even go so far as to plainly state that you desire the firm to cease and desist from all pressure tactics and manipulations to get you to stay if they have indeed engaged in these activities.
Once you have made your intentions plainly known, most employers will not hassle you any longer. Leaving one company for another is a significant life change. The decision to do so is usually an agonizing one. Do yourself a big favour, and follow the guidelines we’ve laid out for you. You will avoid confusing and painful complications, and maybe even a disastrous situation not too far down the road. Say no to counter-offers.
