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I have read multiple times about counter offers always being bad? Now to fully explain my situation I have been with a company 2 years now who I have loved working for and would consider the majority of my colleagues in our specific team friends.

Now I never expected to be on much money. However they began to employ teenagers within the company on more money and a company car despite the fact I was actually the number on sales person within our region of the company at the time and had been on a fairly regular occasions.

Knowing this I made what I felt was a reasonable demand of matching this wage. Once being told I must hit a 3 month target to get this when I had regularly proved myself in the position I must admit I was fairly frustrated and annoyed. However other than that I was happy in my position and still performing well. However after putting my CV online I lined up a number of interviews. Wishing to be honest about the situation I informed my employer of this and stated I did not wish to leave or do this but feel I did deserved what everyone else was no being offered. The target was maintained and so followed a couple of job offers from smaller independant companies (I currently work for a big corporate in real estate).

One of which I felt was a major opportunity as it was £7k extra basic per year, more commission and they were very excited for me to join. Thinking that was that and there was no chance of my current employer offering me anywhere near this I accepted the role and wrote up my resignation letter. However as soon as I have done this my regional manager suddenly wants to discuss matching both the wage and progression with me when I return on Monday to work.

If I am honest with myself I do love my job and the people I work with and never truly wanted to leave. However this was to big an opportunity to pass up hence accepting it. However after being set on leaving (this is the 1st time I would ever be moving workplace) thinking there was no other way I now have this offer. Amongst all this I also do not want to come across rude or unprofessional to the company who have offered me a role either. I would appreciate any guidance or opinions people would have from former experience.

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    Possible duplicate of If companies can afford a counter offer, why don't they pay that before the employee departs?
    – paparazzo
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 22:38
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    Have you heard of the concept of paragraphs?
    – Ed Heal
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 23:02
  • I have. Unfortunately as I was typing in a bit of a stress about it all I got a bit carried away. Apologies
    – Stevo8
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 23:05
  • 4
    @Stevo8 - Well fix the post
    – Ed Heal
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 23:08
  • 2
    @EdHeal it doesn't take too much effort to edit a long post adding some line breaks, you don't even have to add any words at all.
    – enderland
    Commented Mar 19, 2016 at 14:44

3 Answers 3

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In my experience when you have decided to move on - i.e. new CV etc. - it is more than just the money.

It is other things as well. I do not know in your case but I can assure you that in the very near future you will be going down the same road.

If the new job hits the spot - take it. If it is not quite the ticket - keep looking. But do not look back.

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This is just my experience. Once I have gone as far as resigning, I'm going to leave. If I take a counter offer it never lasts. Within a year I'll be resigning again. Because it doesn't really solve whatever underlying problem I had with working there. And the fact that I have already resigned gives me a different outlook on the company and it's ten times easier the second time.

I'll resign over something much smaller than I would have originally.

So in view of that a counteroffer is only good for me in a short term monetary gain way. I have only taken a couple of them though early on. Later in my career I wouldn't take them, it seemed a waste of time to me, because I was already focused on my career going in a different direction and didn't want to tread water for a while.

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    Additionally, I would say, that even if the only reason you want to leave is money, accepting the counter-offer puts you in a position where you're not likely to get another raise any time soon, while leaving for the original offer puts you in a new company with room to grow.
    – Carson63000
    Commented Mar 18, 2016 at 22:50
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Depending on where you are in your career, the answer might be different but looking at the time span you worked at your current employer and comparing your compensation with the newly hired teenagers, I will make the assumption of you are in the early stages of your career and hone my answer on that.

This is the time you can go to a new place for more money. There will be a time in the future, you will realize, jumping ship for such an amount you mention is unfathomable.

If I were you, age, career and everything wise, I would take this new job and never looked back, provided,

  • the new company is not a fly-by-night operation
  • the old company is not on the brink of a earth-shaking re-organization
  • there are no other fringe benefits that you may not realize from the old employer (like more holidays etc)

And why you may ask. Well, I'll be making a freaking more money than any counter offer my old employer can offer. They will understand that I am not just threatening by words but I am a man of action. And if you are as good as you say you are, and they are filled to the brim with inexperienced teenagers, they will feel your absence, painfully. And when they come to their senses, if you want to come back to your old work place, you can more or less dictate the terms.

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