If you decide to leave your job for another job but your company wants you to stay, they might present you with a “counteroffer.” Sounds like a good thing, right? Wrong. A counteroffer hardly leads to anything good for you, or for the company. The reason you are thinking about leaving your company is probably because you are unhappy about things at your current company or the other opportunity you are taking is much better. Accepting more money from your current company helps neither of these. Your issues are not solved and that other opportunity did not become worse.

In an article written by Hal Reiter he says, “Initially, the company that retained you delights in winning you back from the competition. But after perhaps six months, management will begin resenting you for essentially extorting money or power from the firm.” If a company only tries to get you to stay when you tell them you are leaving, neither party will be happy in the end. Sometimes the only reason for a counteroffer is to keep the position filled until they find someone else, which in that case, you could lose your other opportunity.

For more information on counteroffers, read “Receive a Job Counter-Offer? Don’t Take It” at https://www.forbes.com/2008/06/28/counter-offer-employer-lead-careers-cx_hr_0630counteroffer.html or “Six Reasons to Walk Away from Counteroffers” at https://www.www.rmasales.com/index.php/candidates/career-search-tools/six-reasons-counteroffers/ .