'Took a counteroffer 8 months ago. Don't do what I did...': Employee's warning to others about accepting counteroffers after their manager's verbal promise of a promotion never eventuates, and the company undergoes reorganization

"Never accept a counteroffer" is an adage you will hear bandied about any time the conversation turns to accepting a new job offer and tendering your resignation. 

When you go to give your resignation, there's a non-zero chance that your employer will turn around and offer you a raise matching the new salary that you have been offered. They might even beat it and offer a promotion, that next step of growth in your career that you have been looking for and have been desperately missing from your current role. And on paper, it would make sense to accept this, especially if the offer beats the one you have gotten.

But you have to ask yourself, why couldn't they just offer me this sooner if they thought it was worth it? Sure, it could just be organizational oversight. The employee just got lost in the bustle of everything else going on. Well, that and most employers don't just go around paying people more when they're not incentivized to. Meaning that current employees' pay often lags behind that of new hires across entire industries.

This also means that the best way to get a raise in the modern employment landscape is to make sure you keep looking for other opportunities that would be a good fit for you and offer you essential next steps in your growth and career. 

It can seem daunting to keep up with job applications and such when already working a full-time role, but when you go through this process and go back to your current employer, with an offer in hand. You reach the point where we started: the counteroffer.

The reality is, however your employer feels about you and your work, it makes more sense, financially, for them to try to retain you in this moment. Interview processes can be lengthy and a big investment in time and resources. Meanwhile, productivity will be down for your role for that entire duration, and this has a cost to it, too. Any other factors aside, the cold, hard truth is that it's just cheaper for them to match the offer, or beat it, than it is to replace you. 

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Author image for Brad Dickson Brad Dickson
Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01

    Took a counteroffer eight months ago. Don't do what i did.

    An employee discusses a counter offer with his employer.
    via Van Tay Media

    An employee discusses a counter offer with his employer.

    Image is representative, not actual subjects.

  • 02
    I know everyone says don't take counteroffers. I took one anyway. Here's the actual story. Got an offer in January from another company, better title, more money, remote. I'd been at my current place three years and was just kind of. existing there. Not miserable, just not
    via KizillGame
  • 03
    going anywhere. Told my manager i was leaving, she asked for 48 hours, they came back with a salary match plus a little extra and a verbal promise that a promotion conversation would happen in Q2.
    via KizillGame
  • 04
    I turned down the other offer. People here and in my personal life told me not to. I did it anyway becuase i wanted to believe the promotion was real and it felt like finally being seen after three years of putting in the work.
    via KizillGame
  • 05
    Q2 came. No promotion conversation. I asked about it, was told budget pushed it to Q4. Okay fine. Q4 comes, we have one vague conversation that goes nowhere, and then there's a reorg in November, my manager gets let go, my role gets absorbed into a bigger team and the whole promotion track just stops existing like it was never real to begin with.
    via KizillGame
  • 06
    I went and looked up the other company out of curiosity. They filled my role two weeks after i turned them down. Obviously.
    via KizillGame
  • 07
    I'm not even that mad about the reorg, that's just how it goes sometimes. What gets me is i think the promotion was never happening regardless. they gave me the raise becuase it was cheaper than backfilling me and easier than having a real conversation. the rest was just. words.
    via KizillGame
  • 08
    anyway. if you're sitting with a counteroffer right now, the money part is probably real. the rest of it, maybe think carefully about how many of those promises are actually in writing.
    via KizillGame
  • 09
    An employee gestures during a tense conversation
    via Headway

    Image is representative, not actual subjects.

  • But now they know that you wanted to leave, and that poses a risk. Cynically, all the counteroffer does is keep you around and working while they prepare to replace you. It's not quite as simple as they give you a raise and everyone moves on with their day. Like in any relationship, when you know the other party already has one foot out the door, it changes the way that you look at the entire thing. 

    So, now there's an added, hidden cost to that counteroffer. And even if that counteroffer is higher than the other offer, the counteroffer doesn't really mean that everything just goes back to the way it was.  Your employer might have good intentions, but like cream left on the counter for a bit too long before it was put back in the fridge, it won't take long for those feelings to sour.

    This employee shared how they got an offer from another company at the start of last year, in January. Their manager came back with a raise, matching the salary that was on offer, plus a little sweetener and a verbal promise that they would talk about that promotion finally in Q2. But by the time Q2 came around, things had moved on, and they were told that it had been pushed back to Q4. But in Q4, their manager got laid off, and suddenly, there was no one left who remembered that verbal promise, and any talk of promotion got pushed into the background. Leaving them wondering what might have happened if they had just accepted that original offer.

  • 10
    topTopqualitea Never ever accept a verbal promise from an employer.
    via KizillGame
  • 11
    Fabulous Mechanic303 Thank you for this reminder. I'm giving notice on Tuesday and they might counter offer but my mind is made up. I can't risk it!
    via KizillGame
  • 12
    soherewearent Like I told my wife this last week who was told to re-apply to her teaching job only to have it handed to a senior internal transfer. I think it's pretty close to relevant here too. Thanks for sharing your experience, OP. What I told my wife:
    via KizillGame
  • 13
    The biggest nihilist thing I've picked up is that workplace loyalty does not exist. When we stop expecting that workplace loyalty does exist, huge changes are a bit easier.
    via KizillGame
  • 14
    Places continue to run even after significant individuals leave. Retirements don't matter except to the person. Hiring, firing, layoffs, quitting -- none of it will impact the functioning of a workplace, not really, so why the F do I let any of that impact me beyond "oh that sks for a while?"
    via KizillGame
  • 15
    Not a single person in a paid position is going to fall on someone else's sword. H I, most don't even fall on their own swords of responsibility. Shaping my own mind around those concepts took time. It isn't apathy so much as it's accepting reality, and life gets a little easier after adopting that wisdom.
    via KizillGame
  • 16
    CarmenxXxWaldo Starting pay vs. what they have to raise you to for you to stay are never the same. One is the bottom, one is the top. I dont know why anyone would even consider it.
    via KizillGame

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

workplace discussion employment issues antiwork jobs employee employees hiring Horrible Bosses job interview employment trends workplace story employment
Scroll Down For The Next Article

Also From FAIL Blog

Landlord confronts loud resident after getting complaints from neighbors, leading resident to go door-to-door, demanding to know who filed the complaint: ‘I denied it was me’

Landlord confronts loud resident after getting complaints from neighbors, leading resident to go door-to-door, demanding to know who filed the complaint: ‘I denied it was me’

Trending Now

Tenant changes Wi-Fi password to block freeloading neighbor, he guesses the new one and offers to split the bill: '[It was your dog’s name with 123 at the end]'

Tenant changes Wi-Fi password to block freeloading neighbor, he guesses the new one and offers to split the bill: '[It was your dog’s name with 123 at the end]'

01
Landlord confronts loud resident after getting complaints from neighbors, leading resident to go door-to-door, demanding to know who filed the complaint: ‘I denied it was me’

Landlord confronts loud resident after getting complaints from neighbors, leading resident to go door-to-door, demanding to know who filed the complaint: ‘I denied it was me’

02
‘Oh my gosh, what a trick’: Management job candidate walks out mid-interview after finding out mid-way through the role is actually entry-level customer support

‘Oh my gosh, what a trick’: Management job candidate walks out mid-interview after finding out mid-way through the role is actually entry-level customer support

03
Woman refuses to babysit entitled sister's son while she's on vacation after he broke his aunt's work laptop: 'I asked how it was that they had money for a vacation but never had money to pay for the things their son broke'

Woman refuses to babysit entitled sister's son while she's on vacation after he broke his aunt's work laptop: 'I asked how it was that they had money for a vacation but never had money to pay for the things their son broke'

04
'I drove across town to do remote work in a closet': Remote employee rebels against in-person mandate after company installs "focus rooms" for all-day virtual meetings

'I drove across town to do remote work in a closet': Remote employee rebels against in-person mandate after company installs "focus rooms" for all-day virtual meetings

05
Man refuses to keep mowing his elderly neighbors' two-acre meadow for free after their adult kids demand he continue doing it once the parents are gone

Man refuses to keep mowing his elderly neighbors' two-acre meadow for free after their adult kids demand he continue doing it once the parents are gone

06
Advertisement