Why Counter Offers Usually Don’t Work Out in the End

Given the situation in the job market today, you may find yourself in the position of dealing with a counter offer when leaving a job. That is, you have already accepted a job offer from another company, and when you meet with your supervisor to inform him or her that you have taken another job, he offers to increase your salary to get you to stay.

Should you accept the offer?

Career experts appear to be of one mind about the answer – no. Counter offers seldom work out.

When you examine the situation more closely, it is easy to see why. When you decide to look for another job, it is because you are unhappy with your current position for some reason or reasons. It could because the salary is too low, or because there is no opportunity for career growth, or because the job is no longer challenging.

Whatever the issue, presumably you would have done what you could to fix it before taking the final step of looking elsewhere. It is precisely because the issue or issues could not be fixed that you have taken another position. Getting more money is not going to magically fix the problem.

And if the issue is the money itself, you need to ask yourself why your supervisor is only offering a raise to you now that you are about to leave. Why not earlier when you talked to him or her about it? The reason is not that you have suddenly become more valuable to the company, but that your supervisor just wants to avoid the hassle and disruption of looking for another person at the time of your leaving.

Moreover, your supervisor now knows that you are dissatisfied with your job, willing to jump ship, so your loyalty to the company will now be in question going forward, which is likely to affect your manager’s actions when considering promotions or cutbacks.

And finally, research has shown that those who do accept counteroffers usually end up leaving the job anyway within six months.

If you are looking for work, Arrow Staffing can help. We have the expertise and the experience to find the right job for you. Give us a call today.

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