Career Expert Warns That Accepting A Counteroffer From Your Current Employer After Finding Another Job Is A Huge Mistake
Don't mistake a counteroffer as an expression of your value.
fizkes / Shutterstock For people who are just entering the workforce, getting your bearings can feel like a challenge. The corporate world seems to have its own etiquette, language, and paths to success. It can be hard to forge ahead if you don’t understand the ins and outs of corporate rules.
Kevin Preston White is an IT Manager who creates content based on how to be successful in a corporate environment, and he recently shared an important tip that all employees should know.
The career expert warned that accepting a counteroffer from your employer after finding another job is a major mistake.
White described a scenario in which an unsatisfied worker might seek employment elsewhere and explained why you should always leave your job when you’ve found another offer.
“One of the worst things you could do in corporate America is get to the point where you want to leave your job, you interview elsewhere, get another offer, you bring that back to your current boss, and you accept a higher counteroffer at your current company,” he said.
It’s a common experience that most workers will go through at some point in their careers: They’ll try and leverage an outside job offer with their company in an effort to advocate for themselves and get a higher paycheck.
“This is an idiotic decision,” White declared. “It’s a very stupid move to make.”
He outlined the reasons why a worker shouldn’t take that course of action, and it all comes down to the balance of power.
“By you accepting the counteroffer, you essentially are giving your company an ultimatum: Either I’m getting the [expletive] out of here, or you’re gonna pay me more money,” he said. “You don’t wanna put yourself into that situation because you have now just broken trust."
Trust is a crucial component of how well a workplace operates — so crucial that it can make or break a company’s chance at success.
According to data sourced by PwC from their “Trust In U.S. Business Survey,” employers and employees agree that maintaining trust is highly important from both a moral and a business standpoint.
Of the executives surveyed, 95% claimed that it’s an organization’s responsibility to build trust, and 94% of employees agreed. Additionally, 93% of executives reported that a company’s ability to build trust improves their bottom line, and employees proved that to be true, as 22% of workers have left a company because of a lack of trust.
While 86% of executives believed that employees had high levels of trust in them, only 67% of employees reported trusting their bosses. That 18-point trust gap indicates that there are parts of corporate culture that need to change if companies want to retain their employees in the long run.
PwC concluded that the best way for managers to build trust among their teams was simply to listen more, especially since 68% of workers considered listening a key to strengthening relationships in the workplace.
The aforementioned advice on not accepting a counteroffer from your current company has a lot to do with the issue of trust in the workplace.
White gave guidance on what employees should do instead of leveraging a potential job offer.
“Once you get to the point that you are ready to leave your company, whether that’s toxic work culture, you feel underpaid, you don’t like your boss, [or a] combination of everything I just said, you need to [expletive] leave,” he exclaimed.
“Just because they give you a counteroffer, that doesn’t mean they value you more,” he revealed. “They just weren’t ready for you to leave. They weren’t prepared for it. “They will probably start to interview behind the scenes.”
“Once you get to the point that you are ready to leave, literally walk out of that [expletive] door,” White concluded.
A corporation’s bottom line is always going to be based on finances, which is why workers should protect themselves as much as possible by centering their own needs and keeping the ball firmly in their court.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.