Resignation and Counteroffer -
Confront and Overcome the Counteroffer Challenge

A counteroffer will be made because they don't want to lose you; it's an inconvenience. Many times an employer will start to discretely look for a replacement when they have been put in that position.

Counteroffers create a pressure situation for you and your boss. If they felt you were worth more than you were getting, they would have given you more before. Now you've forced them to give you more dollars immediately. They immediately have to expect more from you. Further, your boss's boss will put pressure on your supervisor to get more out of you immediately in order to justify the raise. If they feel they have overpaid you, they may start looking for someone else to hire at a cheaper rate.

Counteroffers are like cheating on your wife or husband. They'll forgive you now, but they'll never forget it. Your raise will have to be approved from the higher up executives in the company, and when it comes time for raises and promotions in the future they will remember who was loyal and who was not. When times get rough, whom will they start the cutbacks with? The people who they know have been loyal, or those who have not?

Your company won't feel they can trust you because you've been out looking or exploring other opportunities. They will not promote someone they can't trust.

The reasons you've been dissatisfied aren't going to change. Companies don't change for one person. Review the reasons why you wanted to leave in the first place.

The company will promise you everything you want. What choice did they have; it would have been very inconvenient for them to lose you right now. What's their history with you on things they've promised? What makes you think this will be different?

Where is the money coming from? Is it money from all the years they shortchanged you? Is it your next raise early? All companies have wage and salary guidelines they adhere to. The money has to come from somewhere in the budget. Will it affect departmental bonuses? Are your co workers not going to get bonuses in order to pay for your raise? Once word gets out, the relationship you now enjoy with your co-workers will never be the same. They will resent it. You will lose the personal satisfaction of peer group acceptance.

Accepting a counteroffer is a blow to your intelligence and personal pride. You know you were bought.

Are You Ready To Accept A Bribe?

When high turnover exists, or an employee possesses unique skills or information, there are high chances of the employer making a counteroffer in order to keep the employee (for the short-term at least, until they can replace the employee.) - the cost of immediate replacement by an outside contractor or with a new employee who needs significant training, can easily be over 60% of your salary, so 20% increases become economical to the employer - for the short-term.

Be prepared for counteroffers in several forms -- salary increases, dinners/lunches with management, promises of projects, new technology, training, promotions, telecommuting, etc. Remember, if the employer really wanted you to have these things, why did they not give them to you earlier? Your employer is not thinking "I am going to hate losing Mary or Joe." On the contrary, the employer thinks, "what rotten timing! Here we are in the middle of a project and a team member wants to leave! What will my manager think of me for losing this person right now."

Be sensitive to your employer but also be aware that he or she may ask you to delay your decision or the new date of employment and that you need to begin your new position fresh, alert and with a good deal of energy.

Most likely, with these counteroffer promises, your manager is not trying to buy you back, but is merely buying time until he or she can replace you. Once the counter offer is accepted, the employer immediately begins to search for a replacement candidate (Why not? The old employee probably still has one foot out the door and is now viewed as being disloyal, probably having used company time and phones to discuss his or her job search while acting like a loyal employee). The new candidate is often hired before the completion of the project, so that the old employee is unwittingly training his/her replacement. Once your employer realizes that there can be a smooth transition from the old to the new. The new employee, at a significantly less salary, is more valuable from a cost justification standpoint than you, and your role becomes very risky, or eliminated!

Additionally, if word gets out to your fellow team members of the counter offer, they will see your new increased salary as a stopgap to their own potential to get higher bonuses at the end of the year or end of the project, and you suddenly become a money -hungry associate, instead of a team member helping to achieve common goals.

Martin Varnier Research, a leading Midwest research firm, had determined that six to nine months later, 90% of those candidates who accept a counteroffer are no longer employed with the company that extended the offer. Once the counteroffer has been accepted, the candidate quickly comes to the conclusion that all the reasons that prompted his or her decision to leave are still valid. He or she also quickly realizes that the only way to apparently receive a raise is to threaten to quit. The main thought to remember is: "COUNTEROFFER" is more appropriately spelled "COUNTERPRODUCTIVE".

Be sensitive to your employer, but also be aware that he or she may ask you to delay your decision or the new date of employment. What you really need to do is begin your new position fresh, alert, and with a good deal of energy. When transition times extend beyond two weeks, all the reasons that made you start looking in the first place begin to increase, so that you may become completely fed up with your old company, and instead of helping them with an increased transition time, bridges really begin to get burned.

You need to think of yourself and to start your new career in the best possible way. When you resign, then resign professionally, with dignity, and permanently. If you have doubts about resigning, discuss them, discreetly, with your employer, prior to beginning the job search, so that you are not wasting his or her time, the time of potential new employers, and your own time. Job search is not a respected means of moving your career in your existing company, and only backfires when used in this manner.

Relevant Professional Journal Articles

• Weighing Alternatives - Counteroffer Acceptance Road To Career Ruin
• News from the World of Executive Search...On Counteroffers
• Should You Accept Your Employer's Counteroffer?

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