Do you accept the counter offer?

Open question to everyone but mainly those who have been dissatisfied with their current role, gone and got an offer somewhere else only to be counter-offered by their current employer and decided to stay?

The reason I ask the question is that my employer is notorious for not paying good wages, especially for those who have "promoted" away from service desk roles and are in 2nd line roles. I went a slightly different route as I came from essentially a design/implementation role and for that I came from outside on half decent wages anyway.

Some people in my team (rightly/wrongly) have gone away and had interviews because they were unhappy, only for the company to match those offers. In my eyes, it would be too late for them to counter offer - and I, personally, would not accept. The reason I am looking for a role elsewhere is not purely based on financial reasons - there could be a myriad. It's like saying I'm willing to put up with all the same crap because they happen to be paying me more.

Now, I am in a slightly different position presently. I've earned my CCIE in the last 12 months, and for personal reasons I've been more than happy to stay in the role that I am in. I work shift rotations so get a very decent amount of night time to study. Therefore while my personal situation is ongoing I am (trying) to study for CCIE#2 as some of you may have been reading in the CCIE forum. That's another story in itself.

So, back to the original question - have you done it? And why?

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Comments

RHEL

A lot of people leverage another job offer to try to get their company to counter offer/match.

I've never done this, but have seen it done countless times. It's easy to consider when you love your job but hate the fact that the best raise you'll ever get, even as a top performer with a promotion to the next salary tier, is 5% compared to the standard company-wide 3%.

powerfool

Danielh22185 wrote: »

I am a strong believer if you do what you love the money comes easy.

I am a strong believer in if it is easy, you should be working harder.

Until the day I can afford to stop working, I always need more money. When I don't need anymore, I can quit and not care about money or do something solely for satisfaction. I felt like it was coming easy, so I upped the ante... broadening my skillset taking on more work, etc. All to increase my marketability and increase my earnings (and I have been rather successful, to that end). It all depends on your goals.

I became a parent rather young in my life and now have kids on the cusp of going to college. Once they are done with school, I want to be semi-retired (I am still not sure what that means for me, but I was thinking I could get by with being a part-time barista for insurance, discounts, and a little bit of extra cash, not that I would necessarily do that).

gorebrush

upped the ante

You don't see many people doing this. Well done.

deth1k

If you are unhappy about the money but like your job, why not tell your manager? If you get a funny look on his face, you know what to do next...

I'm about to do the same, I did have a verbal offer, nothing solid yet and I know I can earn much more. I will make it clear to my boss that I'm not activelly looking for a job but have been made an offer which pays considerably more. It's up to him how to take it. If he thinks I'm worth it, then I'll get a payrise - not a counter offer.

JoJoCal19

I was just in this same situation a little over a month ago. Last November I had been with my previous employer for a year, and at that time I was already underpaid. I had been blown up for new opportunities all last year, especially locally as the recruiters know me, and I'd turned down any interest because I liked where I was at even though I didn't like the pay. I went to my manager about a bump in pay since he knew we were underpaid according to market. Well the security director and CIO scoffed at it. Later that month he left, and then right after that the security PM left. Next thing you know I'm doing security manager's duties and the security PM's duties, in addition to my typical duties and getting killed with work. I approached the director in December about a bump in pay, especially with all of the work I was doing. He pretty much blew it off like there was nothing he could do. As a matter of fact, I was told "ultimately if you're not happy, there are other jobs out there".

Well two days after that conversation, a guy that I worked with there who moved on, texted me about an opening on his team. Of course I knew the pay would be where I wanted it to be so I accepted the invitation to interview with him and his manager. I got the verbal offer same day of the interview. I didn't have the written yet so I once again went to the security director about a raise, and was again told there wasn't anything he could do. Two weeks after that I received my written and put in my notice. All of a sudden the security director told me he didn't want to lose me and that he'd like to try and match my offer and was trying to pull a bunch of details about the new position and offer. I basically said NOPE as politely as possible. On my last day when I went to turn in my equipment he again asked if there was anything he could do to keep me and my answer was the same.

I have a rule that I will flat out not accept a counter. Especially in this case that I wasn't valuable enough to give any sort of raise a consideration with everything I was doing, but now that I'm leaving you're all of a sudden able to give me a raise. To me that is the absolute worst.

kohr-ah

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

**SNIP** As a matter of fact, I was told "ultimately if you're not happy, there are other jobs out there".

**Goes and find better job **
Director: Wait. Why I dont understand!?

Tell me though. Not to go off track. Doesn't it just give you a little joy inside to have the feeling of "Well this is your fault."

JoJoCal19

@kohr-ah, Oh, I wanted to more than anything in the world. I wanted to not only tell him that, but HR during my exit interview. But you know, burning bridges and all, so I left with him and HR both telling me they hope that in the future I will consider coming back if things don't work out.

Lexluethar

I have not taken counter offers and the reason is because rarely does a counter offer really solve for the root of the issue.

As some others have pointed out usually a counter offer is only money and rarely is money the ONLY issue at hand. If you loved your job but just didn't get paid enough you would more than likely stick it out - i know I would.

The issue I see with counter offers is two fold:
1. Usually a counter offer is about money. They generally offer you more money to stay but there is usually more at play like job duties, your boss, your coworkers, company environment, ect. Unless the counter offer specifically outlines how issues will be resolved it's not worth staying IMO.
2. I see counter offers as a slap in the face as well. What a counter offer is, is an admission by a company that they are (and have been) willing to pay you more than they have been paying you. I realize no company will pay you more than you are worth and they will try to get you for as low of an income as possible to help their bottom line but if the pay gap is huge i see it as a slap in the face. An admission by the company that you have been underpaid / undervalued during your employment and only upon departure are they willing to pay you what you are worth to them.

Because of these two reasons, I would never take a counter offer unless it specifically outlined how to solve for 99% of the issues that made you want to leave in the first place. Unfortunately money is usually the only thing offered in a counter offer and that's generally not the core reason someone is going to leave.

powerfool

See, that is the political BS that sucks about working. We all know it is going on. If you are a manager and you say these things to your employees and are surprised by the outcome, you should have never been a manager. If I were a manager, I would sit down with my employees and see how we could get where they want to go with compensation and everything. I mean, seriously, why wouldn't you? If that means grooming yourself for a new position, that is fine, too. At least we are working together during the process and I am in the loop that you may be on the market so to speak. I think what it comes down to is that people have too much of the wrong kind of envy... instead of using it as a motivator to become better, they play childish games to keep other people down. But, I guess that just mirrors the political ideologies that are pervasive throughout culture and what we see on TV.