'I declined, obviously': Employee receives low-ball counter offer from current employer

When you receive an offer from a new employer, you may be incentivized to approach your current employer and see if they'll match the offer. After all—as we often discuss, your current employment is a known entity, and so it will often seem preferable to stay in the comforts of the known—rather than branch out into the unknown of the new role that is being offered.

Usually, your current employer will come back with what they can reasonably offer, seeking to match the offer you've received. It's then up to you to weigh the qualitative aspects of the two roles against each other and make your final decision. While it might seem tempting to stay in your current job, with everything being even, that would often be the wrong choice to make.

The reasons for this aren't readily apparent, but it would be unwise to stay with a company that knows you're looking at other options if you don't know they won't retaliate–and have a history of not retaliating against employees. After all, your employer now knows you'd leave if you had the choice, so what's stopping them from replacing you when they first have the chance? Also, if they know what you're worth, why weren't they willing to pay that to you without another offer being on the table?

Of course, there's always the chance your employer counters with an offer that is lower than the offer you have on the table—just like this worker received from their employer after asking their employer if they were willing to counteroffer. They shared their experience on Reddit's popular r/jobs workplace discussion community, sharing their frustration.

While it might feel frustrating and insulting when this happens, at least you know where you stand and that your decision has been made for you… Now the new job is the only way forward.

Read on to see some of the discussion that took place on the original thread. Next, see this job seeker who admitted to inflating their previous salary in order to get the offer they needed.

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Posted by Brad Dickson