I've accepted another job and handed my notice in but current employer wants me to stay [closed]

Question

I've been with my current employer for over 5 years, and in general I love the company and the work that I do. Unfortunately, a couple of years ago there was some restructuring and now my team, that I'm currently the head of, was put under the over-sight of the new COO, and it feels like a constant struggle with him, with incomplete information, timelines constantly being shifted, and if he doesn't like what he hears from the team he will just use his position as COO to over-ride our input. In addition, the management roles I had as head of the team were slowly delegated by the COO to his assistant. When I raised this, and the fact that I wished to do more management, at my 2 previous reviews and also at a couple of one-to-one meetings, I was always just told that they didn't need that from me.

I knew we had another restructure happening, and as part of this my team was going to be moved to another department away from the COO, so I decided to wait. However, this proposed move hasn't happened for 12 months but I have been involved recently in discussions to make this happen and we were given a timeline which should be in January. In the meantime, I have lost a couple of good team members as they didn't want to wait and had issues with the COO. Then at the beginning of this month the COO has started to tell people that my team shouldn't even be thingking about the move yet as this won't be for another 6 months at least.

As I was concerned that the COO would keep pushing the move back and back, and it is obvious I can't make any progress in my position as it currently stands, I started to look for a new position.

So the current position is that I have accepted a new role, and handed my notice in on Thursday. I have since been contacted directly, first by the CEO and then the head of the department I would be moving to, to ask me to stay and saying they have been and will be intervening to make sure that the move does happen and confirming that the move will also be a promotion for me.

tldr; So, do I go to the new role, or do I stay? Can I stay, as I've already accepted the new position, but I haven't as yet given them my start date?

Answer 1

Have you considered thanking the CEO for his consideration and informing him that you would love to work with him again in the future?

If you stay in touch, you can always return a few years after the reorganization. If you are remembered well, you'll have a much better bargaining position.

I suspect that you feel conflicted about leaving, because you had hoped things were different and trusted that things would change. Those feelings are valid - I'd feel the same. But then the underlying question is 'Can I trust my employer?', not 'Do I stay or do I go?'.

You can't trust your employer blindly, that's what contracts are for.

Answer 2

Yes you can stay.
If your current employer agrees, you can withdraw your notice and continue your employment. Your new company will be disappointed when you inform them you will not be starting with them after all. They'll only be disappointed though, not angry; candidates sometimes accept counter-offers so they'll understand your position.

You should be cautious about staying however.
If your COO has shown that they don't value your management skills (they off-loaded these responsibilities to someone else) or your technical skills (if they often over-rule you), you should question whether they'll really push to restructure the company faster or differently just to keep you. It sounds like restructures have been promised before then not delivered; why will it be different this time?

Also, resigning then accepting a counter offer may result in the company viewing you as an on-going flight risk. They may be less inclined to offer you new responsibilities and you could be at risk if there are future job cuts.

Answer 3

While career advice is not encouraged on this site, I can give my perspective.

1. If they valued you, they should value you when you were staying. Now they are only trying to reduce attrition which will look bad on them.
2. Even if you stay, there will be unspoken tension that you got your promotion as an attempt to hold you back and they may try to compensate at later time.

Not to say that the new position will be problem free and may or may not turn out to be better than current position but you will start clean.