Is a Counter-Offer Worth Taking?
After countless hours of interview prep and resumé tweaks, salary negotiations and application anxiety, you’ve finally received a job offer, accepted it, and finalized a start date. Congratulations: This is a good place to be.
Actually, this blog is all about navigating between good (albeit potentially stressful) options. Because even though you’ve accepted that offer and tendered your resignation, there may still be work to do. As you may know, finding good employees is as difficult as finding a good employer. And training new hires can be incredibly expensive. Reflecting that reality, many employers have a policy of extending counter-offers to resigning employees. In so many words, they’re asking, “What can we do to keep you?”
Which is a question you should put much thought into answering.
Before beginning this discussion, it’s important to note that not every employer has a counter-offer policy. It’s misguided to resign from a position in hopes of receiving a counter-offer. A lot of companies simply do not have counter-offer policies, and even if they do, your role might not qualify. If you’re leaving a position, be prepared to leave.
Counter-offer or not, most written discourse on this subject cautions employees to stand firm when leaving an employer and reject any counter-offer. That makes sense: You’re leaving for good reason. But I find that one-siding this situation is unhelpful. Truthfully, there are many reasons why accepting (or, at the very least, exploring) a counter-offer is in your best interest.
Because not everyone who seeks a new position is necessarily unhappy where they are. Sometimes, things just aren’t working, and an opportunity presents itself elsewhere. Especially at large, multi-layered corporations, hard-working employees can go unrecognized, or their responsibilities become rote over time. That isn’t anyone’s fault necessarily, just an unfortunate circumstance. But even if this describes your situation, you might still love your workplace’s perks, or feel most comfortable at an organization you already intimately know. Thus, a counter-offer promising a higher salary, more responsibility, or a new role might resolve the issue.
Most situations aren’t cut-and-dry, either. Deciding whether to accept or reject a counter-offer requires significant cost-benefit analysis. Keep in mind that changing jobs always adds a layer of complexity to your life. Getting comfortable with a new team, management structure, and workplace are all tall tasks. If dealing with significant out-of-work stressors, these things might prove too overwhelming. So will a counter-offer solve the problems which first spurred you to seek employment elsewhere? Probably not, but the fiscal or professional freedom you’re afforded might allow you to place your focus elsewhere, at least until a better time comes to move on.
And remember, being presented with a counter-offer is an opportunity to negotiate. Your employer is communicating a desire to keep you, and they should demonstrate the lengths they’ll go to do it. Can you negotiate a significantly higher salary for yourself? Expanded benefits? Maybe so. At the very least, have the conversation. How much do they want to keep you? It’s usually worth finding out.
Unless, of course, your relationship with an employer is too damaged to continue. If you dislike who you’re working with or working for, or if you feel legitimately unsafe or unsatisfied with the corporate culture, you should leave. In this case, accepting a counter-offer, even if out of well-intentioned loyalty or reciprocity, is wrong. It does both yourself and your employer a disservice to stay in a workplace that prevents you from thriving.
That is a central reason why the attitude around counter-offers has swung so heavily towards rejecting them. After all, it’s not just minor disengagement or dissatisfaction with a specific role that spurs most people to leave their jobs, but a larger issue: with corporate culture, workplace freedom, or malaise towards the industry-at-large. If this describes you, your company or your industry, I encourage you to follow your initial instinct. Even if offered a new role, one cushier and higher-up the corporate ladder, it’s unlikely to ever become what you need it to be. And you’ll find yourself right back where you began.
However, there’s no single calculus to determine whether you should accept or reject a counter-offer. One employee’s “good reason” for leaving their position is another’s totally-negotiable nuance. Use this blog not as direction toward any given decision, but as a collection of potential perspectives you can use to examine your own specific situation.
As always, if you need any help navigating these tricky circumstances --resignations, counter-offers, and negotiations are not for the faint of heart-- reach out to me, Nancy, on LinkedIn or at Ideal Interview Co. Don’t go through this alone! Why would you?