Beware of the Counter Offer

If you have accepted an offer from a new employer and on giving your notice to your present company a Counter Offer is made, you should consider the following:

Ask yourself if you were worth “X” dollars yesterday. Why are they suddenly willing to now pay you “Y” dollars today when you were not anticipating a raise for some time. (Consider the fact that your present employer could be merely “buying time” with this raise until he can locate a suitable replacement).

Is just more money going to change everything in your present job? Consider the new opportunity you will be giving up that looked so favorable when you accepted it.

The company will probably feel as though they have been “blackmailed into giving you a raise when you announced your decision to leave.

Realize that you are now a marked man. The possibility of promotion is extremely limited for someone who has “given notice”. The company is vulnerable, they know it and will not risk giving more responsibility to someone who was previously committed to leave.

When economic slow-downs occur, you could be one of the first to go. You indicated your intention to go once before, so it is only natural that your position would be eliminated in a slack period.

You should know that statistics compiled by the National Employment Association confirm the fact that over 80% of those people who elected to accept a Counter Offer and stayed are no longer with their company six months later.

Carefully review in your mind all the reasons you wanted to make a change in the first place. Does the Counter Offer really offset these reasons?

If you intent to seriously consider a Counter Offer, be sure you ask you present employer to confirm all the details of said offer in writing.