Counter Offers

[FreedMalloc]

Not me, but my son - he grew to dislike the area where he lived (NW Minnesota) and the project he was on, salary wasn't really an issue. He found a job at a new startup in Central MN (lakes & trees instead of tundra) at a nice hike in pay. When he turned in his notice his boss asked him to meet with mgmt the next morning to discuss keeping him. He agreed. Then he called me (apparently a fount of wisdom is his opinion). I told him it was risky to stay on since his loyalty could be in doubt if times got tough. The new company was a new startup and only had a single customer but was working on a second. So going there was a risk too. I told him he was young and had lots of time to recover financially should the new company go under and finding a replacement would probably not be much of an issue for him. I also told him for the meeting to first think about what he thought their offer might be and to think about what it would take to stay. I said salary wasn't the issue so don't dwell too much on that aspect. But to just be ready to counter or politely reject theirs. Burning bridges is not usually a good way to go, the world is smaller than you think. He called again after the meeting. He said there was the offer he thought they would make, the offer he would counter with and then there was the offer they actually made. He would be off the project he disliked, moving and working remote 100% of the time was not an issue and a fairly significant pay hike to boot. After talking to his wife he decided to stay and he's been pretty happy so far for the last 4 of 5 years. So, it can work out. But, my advice still stands. It can be rather risky to stay. And if the move doesn't work out the next thing quite possibly could - especially when you're younger as he was. You can usually weather a seemingly bad financial hiccup easier than you may think in our line of work.

[BryanFazekas]

Once I accepted a counter-offer. How it worked out depends on your POV. My problem was management -- company hired a middle manager who sucked up to anyone she thought would benefit her and was abusive to anyone below her in the hierarchy. Client loved her so management accepted it (until a year later when her actions were precipitating a lawsuit). I accepted the counter-offer but resigned 6 months later (going to a 3rd company), as nothing had been fixed, only painted a different color. From that POV, it was a waste of time. OTOH, my employer bumped me 10% in the counter-offer and 6 months later my new employer bumped me another 15% ... so from that POV? I'd love to do it every year! Oddly enough, a co-worker went to my first choice. Within a month he complained to me about management problems, benefits changing weekly, etc. That company was defunct 3 years later. In the long term, things worked out well for me, but I can't claim it was part of my grand plan for world domination. The Force was with me during that time. I see 2 options: 1) Take the money and see if anything changes. Give it 6 months and the re-evaluate. 2) If you are resigning, chances are the reasons won't change. If you think the new company is a really good offer (not just money but management, environment, etc), jump ship. If the offer is not that great, see #1.

[Chris Maunder]

If you have resigned and not talked to your employer before hand, then you need to think about why you are leaving. If it's for the money then you'll achieve your goal and save everyone a big hassle by leaving. If you talked to them, asked for a raise, they said no, then you quit and then they offer a raise then leave. That's not cool. They can either afford to lose you or they can't. They shouldn't play games (to be fair circumstances can change, but there'd have to be a good story)

cheers Chris Maunder

[etkid84]

unfortunately back then it wasn't a thing; besides my work involves interfacing with hardware and you can't test that remotely. i suppose if it was a few days a week, i would have never left the place. i am very leery of working remotely, because there may come a time when they want in person meetings and i'm betting they won't pay the cost of traveling long distances, hotel rooms, airfare, etc. i always like being around my colleagues, working in the same area, being able to walk up and talk out a problem on the whiteboard, get help in the lab testing, etc. you can't replace that sort of stuff. i suppose if you are creating web pages and databases that sort of thing, it would be ok. :java:

~d~