内容概览
A counter-offer is your current employer's response to losing you, and it usually addresses the reason you gave rather than the reason you looked. That distinction is the whole decision. Counter-offers are not automatically a trap — some are a genuine correction of a real underpayment — but they resolve one variable in a situation that usually has several, and they arrive at the moment you are least able to think clearly.
Why do employers make counter-offers?
Because replacing you is expensive and slow, and because the immediate cost of keeping you is lower than the immediate cost of losing you. That is a rational position and not a cynical one.
What it does mean is that the offer is made under time pressure, from the employer's side as much as yours, and time-pressured decisions tend to address the visible problem. If you said you were leaving for money, the counter will be money.
What question should you actually be answering?
Not "is this more money than the other offer?" but "which of these two situations do I want to be in twelve months from now?"
Write down, before you respond, the three things that made you take the first call from a recruiter. Very few people write down "salary" alone. It is usually some combination of scope, a manager, a direction the organisation is taking, a promotion that did not happen, a commute, a team that was dismantled.
Then check each against the counter-offer. A raise that does not change any of them has not answered the question.
What should you ask your current employer before accepting?
Ask for specifics, in writing, and treat vagueness as an answer in itself.
- What exactly changes, beyond pay? Scope, reporting line, title, team?
- When does it take effect, and what has to happen first?
- Why was this not available before I resigned?
- Who else knows I resigned, and how does that affect my standing here?
- How does this affect my position at the next review or promotion round?
That third question is the one that most often produces the real information. If the answer is "the budget only appeared because you resigned", you have learned how your next raise would have to be obtained.
What are the real risks of accepting?
Three worth weighing honestly, and the first is often overstated while the third is understated.
- **You are now known to have been leaving.** In some organisations this has no effect. In others it quietly affects who is given the next stretch assignment.
- **The underlying reason usually returns.** If the reason was scope or a manager, a raise defers it rather than resolves it.
- **You cannot go back to the employer whose offer you declined**, at least not soon. Declining after acceptance is remembered by the company and by whoever introduced you, and in a regional market with a small number of employers per sector, that is a narrower world than it sounds.
When is accepting a counter-offer the right decision?
When the counter-offer changes the thing that was actually wrong, and you can describe what has changed without using the word "salary". A genuinely corrected band, a scope change that was already being discussed, a manager change that was already in motion — these are real.
It is also reasonable to accept when your circumstances make timing decisive: an immigration status tied to your employer, a vesting date close enough to matter, a family situation that makes this a bad quarter to move. Those are honest reasons to stay, and worth being explicit with yourself about, because they are temporary by nature.
How should you decline one?
Quickly, in person where possible, and without negotiating. Thank them, be clear that the decision is made, and offer a handover that leaves the work in good shape. Do not enumerate everything that was wrong — you will want this reference, and the person you are speaking to is not the organisation.
If you accepted a counter-offer and are now leaving three months later, say so plainly to the next employer. It is common enough that it needs no elaborate explanation, and an evasive answer about your last twelve months is the thing that damages you.
How should you have handled it before it arrived?
Decide, before you resign, what you will do if a counter-offer is made. Write the number and the conditions down. A decision made in advance, in calm, is a much better instrument than one made in a room with a manager who is surprised and persuasive.
If you are weighing an offer against a counter-offer now and want a view from someone who is not paid either way, talk to the consultant who introduced you, or register with us. We never charge job seekers a fee, and an honest "stay where you are" is an answer we give more often than you would expect.