You have just received an offer from the company you’ve been dreaming of working at, and you’re ready to leave your current position and start your new mining job. However, soon after handing in your notice of resignation, your employer responds by using a common tactic. They give you a tempting counteroffer to try and persuade you to stay.

This may include promises to give you a salary raise or promote you if you continue working for them. On the flip side, your employer may guilt trip you or criticize the new company. After all, companies do not want to lose good employees, and finding new hires takes time and is a cost to their organisation.

Likely, this will sway you and make you think twice about resigning, even though you had already made up your mind to leave.

(If you are yet to tell your boss about your new job offer, first know how to resign with grace: it is best to deliver the news in private and explain your reasons for leaving, without bad-mouthing the company. It is better if you have already brought up issues you have with your job or the company that has gone unaddressed so that your boss does not feel blindsided.)

What’s the right move?

Here are some things to consider about counteroffers to help you handle them.

Reflect on the pros and cons and stay true to your own wants.

Before you make your decision, compare the new position with the counteroffer and your current job. Compare the disadvantages and advantages of choosing one or the other. Which one holds better opportunities, benefits, and will give you more job satisfaction?

As well as this, consider what the consequences of accepting the counteroffer might be. Would it really improve your career if you stay? Would your relationship with your boss change or stay the same? Either way, go with your gut and stick to the career path you really want for yourself – and remember your reasons for wanting to quit.

Be wary of counteroffers and the consequences of accepting one.

Many recruitment experts and managers believe that employees should NOT take counteroffers and that accepting one will hurt your career in the long run. The reasons for this are that:

• Your grounds for wanting to leave your job are still real. A raise will not change that if you had other reasons for quitting, and you will remain unsatisfied in the long term. Bear in mind that your company and the ways it operates won’t change.
• When your employer learns you were looking for another job for some time, they will no longer trust that they can rely on you to stay loyal or that you are worth keeping in the long run. This may end in you getting fired in time and suffering a knock to your career. In other words, you have already burnt your bridges.
• In addition, this may harm your relationship with your superiors, which can have all kinds of negative effects.
• Experts claim that if it took you getting an outside offer for your company to offer you a raise or promotion, this should be treated with suspicion.
• Counteroffers can just be a tactic used by employers to give them enough time to find your replacement, according to experts.
• Counteroffers are rarely about your company looking out for your best interests, and more about your boss wanting to maintain their image as a good manager and save the time and costs required to replace you.

If you decline the offer, leave with grace.

Let your boss know that you value the experience you have had at the company and have appreciated them as a manager. Do not make negative remarks about the company when you leave and keep your relationships within the organisation intact.

This will help you if you ever need references from your boss or ex-colleagues in the future.

The final word

Although accepting counteroffers is generally discouraged, taking a counteroffer is not necessarily a death sentence for your career. In some cases, it can end up working out in your favour. At the end of the day, your decision depends on your boss and your relationship with them, the company, and what you really want for your career.

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