After multiple rounds of interviews, possibly some negotiations, you’ve finally been offered a job at a new company. Congratulations! You thought it over, decided to take the plunge, and you have started looking at the paperwork. But when you go to give your two weeks’ notice at your current job, they hit you with a counteroffer. What do you do? You begin questioning your decision to leave. Change is hard, after all. And your current company is matching or offering you more money. That’s good, right? You should stay. It would be easier. Better. Wouldn’t it?
This isn’t the case for every person or every company, but for the most part, accepting a counteroffer from your current company and turning down a new job offer is a bad idea. Here’s why:
It can change your relationship with your employer
When companies make counteroffers to keep someone from leaving, it’s oftentimes because they are panicked and don’t want to deal with losing a strong person and then trying to replace them. However, after the dust settles it’s very possible that they will look at you differently – they will see you as the person who was looking to leave, and you could be bumped to the top of the list if they need to do restructuring or make budgetary cuts in the future. It can also cause some awkward tension since your employer is very aware that you were ready to leave and had to be tempted into staying.
You weren’t being paid your worth before
It’s very likely that part of the reason why you wanted to leave your current company was because you wanted better pay or a fairer salary. Now that this new company has offered you a job, your current employer is finally deciding to give you your due and pay you more. That’s not a great indicator of your future at that company. They needed you to be halfway out the door in order to give you a good salary. They weren’t paying you your worth, and what do you think will happen the next time you want a raise or a title change? Drastic measures shouldn’t need to be taken in order to get your company to treat you right.
The factors that made you look for a new job aren’t going to change
If you were happy with your pay at your current job and that wasn’t a driving factor for you in taking the leap with this new company, something else was. Something at your current position wasn’t working for you. Maybe it was the hours, or the work culture, or the commute. But there was some factor that made you consider job searching. If you accept your employer’s counteroffer and stay, even with the extras they’ve promised you, those other negative factors aren’t going to change. Once the glow of the raise or promotion wears off, you’re still going to have to deal with the hour of traffic every day, or the toxic clique on the 2nd floor, or the boss who micromanages you. A new job means change, yes, but change isn’t bad. If you stay, you’re signing up for more of the same stuff you were sick of just days earlier.
A new environment will be better for your career in the long-term
If you’ve been at your company for a long time it can be daunting to make a change to a new one. But sometimes shaking things up is exactly what your career needs. Perhaps your career is stagnant, perhaps you are finding yourself often bored, perhaps you don’t even remember what it feels like to be challenged at work. These are all reasons to move on from your current company, even if you’re content there. It’s like exercise: if you just work out the same muscle over and over again, eventually you will plateau and not see any results. But if you change your routine, try a different type or intensity of workout, you will begin to see beneficial changes once again even if it’s difficult at first.
