How to manage counter-offers

If you’re about to leave one company for another, it may happen that your current employer will try to “win you back” with a counter offer. While it’s a nice feeling to be wanted, in practical terms it isn’t usually advisable to accept a counter offer. Here’s why:

Counter offers make life complicated
If you accept a counter offer and remain in your current position, you may find your workplace relationships strained. Your employer won’t forget that you wanted to leave—a fact that makes you statistically more likely to leave in the future. (The National Business Employment Weekly reports that four of five people who accept counter-offers end up leaving in the following 12 months anyway; sometimes it is by their choice, sometimes they are given the pink slip.) As well, your co-workers may feel as though you don’t really want to be there, working with them.

Counter offers don’t always meet your career goals
You most likely accepted a new position elsewhere because you thought it was a move in the right direction for you. While a counter offer can present some appealing perks, it isn’t likely to answer the deeper reasons behind your desire to leave. At the same time, given your new relationship with your old employer, you may find internal opportunities for advancement curtailed due to your perceived unreliability as a long-term loyalist.

Your potential new employer will be disadvantaged
After investing a significant amount of time, effort, and money in filling a position, your prospective employer may have to start the hiring process all over again. In the time you were negotiating, other candidates who were told the job was taken will likely have gone on to something else. This, in turn, can affect your reputation as an employment prospect down the road: you may find yourself branded an undependable candidate.

So what should you do?
Once you’ve found a new job, the best thing to do is hand in a written resignation and make it final. Be comfortable with your decision to improve your career, and embrace all the wonderful qualities of the new company that made you want to work there in the first place—you won’t regret it.
If you need help writing a letter of resignation, please see our How to Write a Letter of Resignation fact sheet for some useful tips.