Company wants to see offer letter received from another company to match salary

Question

I love my job but I've been offered a job at a different company with slightly more salary. As I was in two minds to take the offer, I discussed with my current company if there is anything that can be done to help me consider, i.e. the salary and the role.

They said they can work with me to define the role and match the salary but want to see the offer letter as they trust me but want to see in writing what's been offered. As the offer letter is private and confidential, I said I can't share the details. I've been asked to remove all those details and share it anyways.

Should I forward the letter by removing the personal/confidential details?

They also said they may want to know the details of the company when close to an arrangement. I'm not sure I want to share the details, but can they cross check the offer with the other companies?

Answer 1

You were right to point out your offer is confidential. If you remove all the text from that offer that can identify the other company then you end up with a text that you might just as well have invented yourself, there's no way your current company can verify that you have a genuine offer. It's a silly thing to ask for if you consider it from this perspective, if you already lied about getting an offer what would be stopping you from lying about it some more with a fake text...

Secondly, if you end up accepting the new offer, your new company might get informed that you showed the confidential offer to your old boss, it might be a bad light in which to start your new job.

So you should tell your current company they have to trust you because the offer is confidential and there is no way to prove you got the offer, other then producing a meaningless text. Why would you continue at a company that doesn't trust you?!

Answer 2

Should I forward the letter by removing the personal/confidential details?

They also said they may want to know the details of the company when close to an arrangement.

By doing this in stages, they're trying to manipulate you and delay the process.

Don't give in. Be willing to walk away.

If you give them the details, they will burn you to the other company (see this real life example) and the other company will rightly put you on their "never-hire" list. Or they will try to delay the negotiation and the final paperwork until your alternative offer expires. And they may ultimately renege on their agreement with you since your leverage will have evaporated.

If you really want to play this right, you need to say something like:

"This letter is confidential and I just don't feel comfortable sharing it. You don't believe me, and that's fine. I don't need you to believe me."

Either they give what you want or they don't. You can't really control what they're going to choose. But the one thing you can do is behave as if you were impervious to their attempt to make you prove yourself to them. Because with a competitive offer from another company, even if they never see it, even if they don't believe it, it doesn't really matter. Deep down, you know that you're able to walk away.

Answer 3

As noted in past answers, "I have a competing offer so raise my salary" is usually not good strategy. Many companies have specific procedures for merit-based pay (or at least scheduled pay adjustments) and evaluation of those as a management team, so your manager might not be able to do anything but promise to support your request at that time. And if you tell them you're looking elsewhere, their priority may be to find your replacement rather than to retain you.

Better approach: "According to what I've seen published, my salary is on the low end of the industry range for someone at my level. What can I do to help you convince upper management that I deserve a raise/promotion/whatever?" Request for a cooperative path, with at most an implication that someone might lure you away.

Answer 4

They said they can work with me to define the role and match the salary

You have to decide what to do if nothing changes except the salary, will you stay with the new company.

You have already told them you have one foot out the door. They know you interviewed. They know that somebody was willing to make you an offer. They know you are ready to take that offer.

The are many questions on this site about promises that the company didn't keep related to things such as training, work location, promotions... So many that you shouldn't count on things that take time to happen.

If they match the salary only will you stay? If yes show them the letter. If the answer is no, then don't show them the letter. If that means they don't match the salary, then you have your answer.

This dilemma is one more reason why requesting a counteroffer is problematic. Sometimes you risk the new job for no gain. Or you decline a good offer while telling your current company you will be leaving soon.

Answer 5

it's perfectly understandable why they want confirmation that you indeed have that offer. After all, they're being asked to match it or better, so you'd best be able to show them that you indeed have it.

It would indeed be a smart move to remove things like contact information and names of people in the letter, but if you're serious about wanting them to make you a counter offer you should work with them, not against them.

Answer 6

Think of it from their point of view. Alternatively, think of it if you were the boss and every employee demanded a raise because "I have an offer elsewhere".

Sure thing, bub.

You expect them to just take your word for it and give you a raise?

It would create a company culture where the people who sit quietly and do their job feel like fools because word would get around that the way to get raises and to get ahead is to play chicken with the management.

Answer 7

As a supplementary answer to Fattie's answer, regarding "future unemployability" (and in part addressing this comment):

Where would this be recorded and shared with people who would employ you?

in case there is any doubt as to whether news of your sharing a confidential letter either as a whole or in part (i.e. redacted) would get out... bored people in offices/workplaces talk... a lot!

First, around your immediate locale/site

So, just from standing around the water cooler, it is likely after a while you would be known for having shared a confidential letter from a prospective employee, and even the contents of that letter may become common knowledge:

Hey, did you hear that person X got offered 10 Escudos more per hour by company Y?

Second, beyond your workplace

Then, take into account, that news can casually spread further than the immediate locale/site because friends/colleagues/acquaintances across sites talk - for example, in the pub at lunch, when entertaining cross-site (including multi-national) staff members, external third parties, and other visitors. People often see little harm in sharing details like these, with others who aren't immediately associated with the person concerned. Sharing details like these can be seen to help create an intimacy that build external working relationships, and may even help close a deal.

By now, your sharing of a confidential letter has become common casual knowledge, even though it still seems like harmless banter/gossip, and may not seem all that problematic.

Third, at job application time

The problem comes when you apply for a related job elsewhere and the immediate hiring team - not the HR team but the technical team members who are conducting the technical aspects of the interview (the people that you will end up working with and who (usually) have a major vote in your eventual hiring) - contact their friends from other sites and companies (that could be miles away or even in a different country) and ask

Hey, you worked with, or closely with, or with a team that included person X. What are they like?

To which the response could be one of these three:

• Awful, avoid them like the plague
• Amazing, hire them immediately
• Ok, but let me tell you a story about them sharing a confidential letter...

You think this is unlikely? Trust me, this happens a lot.

Now, indeed, this may not make you unemployable, but, regardless of whether it does or does not, do you want to be known as the person in this story?

Answer 8

It doesn't matter how much you make elsewhere. What matters is how much salary you want to work for the new company, and whether they want to pay that amount.

My salary at my old company is between me and them. Even if I told the new company, it wouldn't affect how much I want to get paid.

Answer 9

can they cross check the offer with the other companies?

Well they can ask...

But it would be highly unprofessional of the other company to give out this information, and very unlikely they would do it.

I suppose they could say what their standard starting salary for someone with X years of experience is, but should not confirm that that is what they offered you.

You don't say where you are, but I'd be very surprised if this wasn't the same in any culture.

Answer 10

Your pay at your current company is a negotiation between you and your company. What another company offers is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is how much value your current employer considers you to bring in to them, as measured by how much they compensate you for it. Your company has already shared their current assessment of that number: it's called your salary.

The only possible reason why your company would want to see your new offer letter is to know how much to counteroffer. In other words, they already know you're worth more than they're paying you, but they want to know the minimum they can counteroffer to make you consider staying. They already lowballed you once—that's what brought you to the market—and now they want to lowball you again. (Note to company leadership anywhere: this is not a winning strategy for retaining the talent you've invested in.)

Consider also that whatever grievances you had with your current employer won't go away if you decide to stay.

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All this said, I made this mistake in the recent past and ended up in a company that was a bad fit. Especially when you say that you "love your job here" and that the new offer is "only slightly more salary": if you're living comfortably and you're working comfortably, that's no small thing. That's worth a lot of money. Embracing change and having a sense of adventure are important in life, but don't throw away something great in pursuit of a number.

Answer 11

Should I forward the letter by removing the personal/confidential details?

Here's a two-letter answer.

"No".

You might as well be asking "Would my wife mind if I had intercourse with another woman?"

The idea of asking to see a letter - any letter - from any other company, is so far beyond the pale it's just completely absurd.

If you ever took part in such a bizarre situation, you'd be marked for life as unemployable, totally unprofessional.

The company you currently work for is "psycho", and you should walk away today.