Counter Offers

Jacquers

Have you / would you accept a counter offer if you resign and your current employer is willing to increase your salary? There are a lot of arguments against it and also some for it, depending on the circumstances. If you did, how did it work out? You thoughts / experience with this?

Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter

If your reason to resign is money - you may accept, however you should first ask for that money and explain why... If you did that and the only way was to get it is to resign - you have some problem with the employer, who only willing to pay when it hurts him... Hi may will hurt you back if there is a chance... So it is a very delicate situation, and if you have a firm chance to get another job with the right money and all, IMHO you should go with that... Of course, if the reason not money, than it is not a question...

"The only place where Success comes before Work is in the dictionary." Vidal Sassoon, 1928 - 2012

NeverJustHere

If there are things that are making an employee unhappy enough for them to quit, then increased pay will only cover that dissatisfaction for a short period of time (I vaguely recall an academic study showing about 6 months). Eventually the unhappiness will triumph, and the employee will leave again. Thus (and I realise I'm writing this from an employers perspective), thus it's only worth doing if there is sufficient benefit for having the employee for an additional 6 months, or if there is a genuine attempt to resolve the causes of employee dissatisfaction. From your perspective the two things to consider would be: - can you use your position to negotiate to resolve the causes of unhappiness? - how would you feel to be in the same place, in 6 months time, with the pay increase a distance memory?

Rage

I was in the employee position, and I refused for two reasons: - First, I did not want to leave only because of the money. - Second, if an employer thinks they can manipulate me with money, then the relation is toxic. What is the message : Is that an acknowledgment that they have underpaid me until now ? Or does it mean that their first thought about good relationship is that it increases with money ? Honestly, I never looked back and never had regrets for leaving. Then, every situation is different.

Do not escape reality : improve reality !

CPallini

No counter offer worked for me. Once resigned, I never changed my mind.

"In testa che avete, Signor di Ceprano?" -- Rigoletto

den2k88

My experience had the increased salary lower than the new place and the promise of meal tickets - which I discovered are still not available 2.5 years after I resigned. Anyway it depends on why I'm going away. If it is because the company tried to fark me over one time too many, because I lost trust in the company or similar, it's not a question of money. If I'm leaving because they are underpaying me I'd consider it, keeping in mind that a company that is underpaying will probably not keep up with future raises I'd get in the new one, so either the counteroffer is extremely good and my relation with the company is sound or it's just not worth it. Mostly it comes down to the fact that I had to leave in order to get some recognition, which does not bode well. A healthy environment would prevent people from going away instead of trying to repair a done damage.

GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

den2k88

NeverJustHere wrote:

If there are things that are making an employee unhappy enough for them to quit, then increased pay will only cover that dissatisfaction for a short period of time (I vaguely recall an academic study showing about 6 months).

This. I've been faster, 3 months.

GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X

Daniel Pfeffer

If your reason for leaving was low salary, you should have raised this with your employer before quitting. Accepting a counter-offer is risky - the employer may see you as a "short timer", and will get rid of you at his convenience, leaving you looking for a new job. If your reason for leaving was not money, the counter-offer is irrelevant.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.

yacCarsten

If you stay, then you'll be viewed as someone who looking to jump ship sometime in the future. It may even be that you're the first to go when there are cuts (been there), or at the very least not worth putting time/money into further training. Leave on good terms citing that you want to gain experience (emphasize its not the money) at the other place. Even hint that you really like working there and would like to come back in the future with new found knowledge (I've been back to one place 3 times and another twice). It also leaves an opening if the new job sucks.

// TODO: Insert something here

Top ten reasons why I'm lazy 1.

Nelek

I have had only one counter offer in my life, the big boss of the local office came to me and asked why I was leaving (it hurt them way more they wanted to recognize). I told him my main reason, I was moving together with my SO to a new place and didn't want to do 1 to 1,5 hours commute each way (with standard traffic) every day, and my secondary reason was that my salary wasn't increasing parallel to my responsibilities and amount of work. He offered me to count the commute increase as work hours and asked me why didn't say something about the salary before... I had to refrain myself (either from laughing or for being "not nice") and then I answered back: "The point is, I already have done it... twice. In last two yearly revisions with my direct boss" He only said "A-ha" and left the room after a couple of minutes of additionally small talk. ........... Going back to the your question. I say the same as others, accepting a counter offer is not a good idea. BUT... I do see a BUT... - If you already have another job (I have never resigned a position without having a new one), then try to end in good terms, but go away and don't look back. - If you resigned without having a new job, then say yes... the following months are not going to get better and you will end wanting to go anyways. But at least you know that you are worth more than what you were previously getting and that might give you confidence to ask for more in the upcoming interviews. If you don't find anything else, then at least you can save more during this time to have a larger period of tranquility if something goes wrong and you end leaving anyways.

M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.

Nagy Vilmos

Never and I've had it several times. If I'm unhappy, I'll have a negotiation with my boss and if unresolved I'll go and look. Once you've had an offer to leave, you'll never be fully trusted to stay.

veni bibi saltavi

Slacker007

Nagy Vilmos wrote:

Once you've had an offer to leave, you'll never be fully trusted to stay.

This, IMHO, is the only reason why you should never stay if they increase your pay, etc. They will never trust you again.

DerekT P

Exactly this. (Long) before going freelance, I was working for a UK company that was taken over by a US corporation (won't name it, but it's initials were an anagram of DES). Very quickly the company's previous ethos of looking after staff, being flexible to their needs, catering for their development went out of the window. Project timescales were hugely shortened (at the expense of quality) whilst the fees to the client went up. I was doing overnight on-call support (in addition to the daytime hours) and getting nothing for it. I repeatedly pointed out that we (the whole team) had lost so many benefits, were expected to work longer and harder, and were losing out on future prospects by being associated with shoddy deliverables, all to no avail. Just responses that we were being paid "market rate". Within an hour of my resignation letter hitting my line-manager's desk, the "big boss" was handing me a coffee in his office with an offer to substantially increase my salary - but no-one else's. He just looked confused when I told him he "just didn't get it". It's the only time I ever slammed a door at work. The next job I had was the best permie role I ever had.

Lost User

They may just take you back to fire you. Nothing like second guessing yourself.

It was only in wine that he laid down no limit for himself, but he did not allow himself to be confused by it. ― Confucian Analects: Rules of Confucius about his food

NotTodayYo

Never ever do it.

rnbergren

Don't! it never works out well. I have never personally done it. Watched it fail spectacularly for both employee and employer many many times in many many ways. I have watched this from inside management. From outside management. It all is a train wreck. Usually goes something like this. HR/Management - "John" is leaving he knows the shit we need to keep John around to find out what he knows. Offer him anything to stay. Management - OK John you get 2x your salary before to stay and all the vacation you could ever want, we just came to understand how much you mean to our world and we cannot live without you. John - OK Management to HR - Quietly find someone who can learn from John and be John's apprentice/whipping boy. HR -ok Management - Hey John since you are so busy we got you this great kid who you can order around to do anything you want them too. John - OK! Management to Kid - Learn everything and you get a 2x raise. Kid - OK! 6months to a year later Management and HR - Sorry John but your services are no longer needed. Good bye! John - huh?????

To err is human to really elephant it up you need a computer

etkid84

IMHO, software engineers are not motivated by money as much as they are by intellectual curiosity and the desire to continuously learn new things. There has to be other reasons why you wish to leave your current employment. For me counter offers would never motivate me to stay. Every time, I made a move to leave a company it was based on convenience to my lifestyle at the time -- when commuting to work was a real thing and remote work didn't exist. For example, I gave up my first 90 minute car ride each way for a 15-20 minute one. The second time, I gave up a 100 mile round trip for a 12 mile round trip. It wasn't about the pay so much as the inconvenience to living a well-balanced life. :java:

~d~

Jacquers

So if they countered by allowing you to work remotely would you have stayed? Other non financial reasons may be broken internal processes that never get fixed / company culture until the company sees that it will cost them if they don't.

Forogar

I've had three occasions where resigning brought counter offers: 1. I was working for a boss who hated me because I had shown up his incompetence a couple of times. I got an offer from another company giving me effectively a 50% raise in income (including the value of new benefits). Once I put in my resignation, my boss's boss brought me to his office and made a counter offer to increase my salary by 4%. For some reason he was surprised and disappointed when I turned it down. The next day he brought in his boss and they offered me a 20% raise and a double promotion (there were dozens of seniority levels so this wasn't really important) - which they said was the best they could do because of union restrictions as I didn't have an engineering degree (I had a PhD in CS but that didn't count apparently). I left, they had to hire three people to take over my job - so that cost them almost triple my salary - they could have doubled it and saved money - I might have stayed - it was a fun job except for the mad boss. He was fired three months later after another key programmer quit, citing him as the reason. 2. The next job after the one above paid me quite well but was an insurance company and was very restrictive in their procedures and actively discouraged thinking (inside or outside the box). I decided to go contracting and resigned - they immediately offered me a promotion to a management level and, again, a 50% pay raise, to stay. I didn't, the threat of being management overrode the generous money offer big time. Note: My first contract paid more than double what I would have got if I had stayed and was much more interesting and challenging. 3. After being a contractor for a few years I got a really interesting position and got renewed for three years. At that point the unions said "no more contractors" and I could not be renewed again so they offered me a permanent job, then a higher paid one, then another higher paid one. This latter would be enough money but the hierarchical level meant I would be working for someone who had effectively been working for me and I had previously been asking for her to be replaced because of her bad attitude. Also the level was such that I was pre-maxed out on incremental raises for three years before I could get another promotion. I left and actually went to a permanent job in Germany which started off as a contracting job and was changed to permanent before I started - this was one of my favourite jobs.

- I would love to change the

obermd

In general - no, unless you're in a situation where you know there will be counter offers. The reason is that by the time you're ready to leave for another job you've already emotionally left the company.