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COUNTER OFFERS Counter offers are often referred to as career suicide. People accept counter offers because they fear change and accept a counter offer as a way of avoiding a decision that they had already committed to make (to leave their present position). What I have taken the time to put down on paper I believe are some logical thoughts. I have worked as a professional recruiter here at Search Masters since 1973. I have seen all of these examples happen in real life. If you would like to discuss this, please call me, Tom Corrigan, at the office phone number (216) 781-5311. I am easy to reach. None of my calls are screened, and I return every message I receive. 1. Do not let this fleeting moment of power go to your head. You may be in a position to feel that now, but read on. 2. Statistics clearly show that if you accept or solicit a counter offer, the probability of you voluntarily leaving, getting fired or being demoted within 12 months is extremely high; in fact it is almost a certainty. 3. The day before you solicited/received this counter offer, you were the exact same person with the same skills, education, experiences, etc. Why are you suddenly worth more? The answer is you're not. You have simply intimidated the employer with the fear of losing you. 4. Even if your employer is your "friend" and wants to counter offer you, that employer should realize that they are sending a signal to the remainder of the work force that he/she can be forced into such a situation. This destroys his/her credibility. 5. Turn the situation around, and assume your supervisor's position. How have you REACTED in the past when you were forced to do something when you felt cornered. Just because you did not bring up the idea of a counter offer does not remove the responsibility from you for creating the circumstances which forced the counter offer situation. Your employer will look at this being a result of your actions. 6. Company, culture, practices and policies seldom change. The same circumstances that caused you to take the steps to make a change will definitely repeat themselves. 7. Do you really want to work for a company that you need to threaten to resign before they recognize your value or wake up to see the problems? 8. You have now made your employer aware that you are unhappy, and from this day forward your loyalty, fidelity and motives will always be under suspicion. This is why counter offers are referred to as career suicide. The employer will always be worried about promoting you, giving you the key account to work with; in short, making you even more important in the organization. If they scrambled to keep you as an engineer, how much more would your leaving hurt the company if you were the chief engineer? 9. Where is the money coming from to fund the counter offer? Is it simply your year end raise in advance? Is it coming from other employees raises and/or bonuses? All organizations have budgets. This money did not just appear; it came from somewhere. 10. All organizations go through cutbacks. When that happens, I have often seen employers select the people who threatened to leave as their first wave of layoffs. 11. How do you look at yourself after accepting a counter offer? You think you are a good negotiator, highly respected by your organization but to others you are a person who's professional integrity has a price. 12. Once the word gets out (and it will) you will be viewed differently by your co-workers. If you supervise people how will they react? 13. Your supervisor probably was required to tell the people he/she reports to about the counter offer. They may not have supported the idea of keeping you as much as your immediate supervisor did. They merely gave into your supervisor's wishes for now. 14. Future promotions, raises and bonuses will be affected by this. You probably will not be any further ahead 18-24 months down the road - if you are still there. 15. Counter offers are usually nothing more than stall devices to give your employer time to replace you. Let me end this with a story that happened in 1978. Larry was an Aerospace Engineer who was a graduate of Case Western Reserve University and experienced in his field. He accepted a counter offer of employment to remain with what was then, and still is today, a highly respected aerospace firm here in Cleveland. About one week after Larry accepted the counter offer, his company contacted Search Masters with a confidential search assignment. At the time I did not know the specifics of what happened. I was told that the employee we were replacing was a poor performer, but critical to the project he was working on at this time. We placed a good engineer with the firm. (In fact he just retired from the company as the Chief Engineer.) Once the company had Larry's replacement secured, they terminated him with one week of severance; he had worked at the firm for 5 1/2 years. Larry was let go and he spent the next 10 months unemployed. I came to know Larry well during this search and over the years have become his friend. He told me that it took his family 6 years to recover from that layoff. Larry was and is a good man and a fine engineer. His company was just doing what they felt was in their best interest. |