You have just plucked up the courage, and you have handed your notice in. You then get a counter offer! What do you do?

• Do you accept the counter offer?
• Have you already signed your contract for your new role?
• Do you take your next role?

Decisions, decisions, decisions…

These below points are reasons as to why you should never accept a counter offer. You may or may not agree!

1.) Your current company have been underpaying you before you handed your notice in. Why would you want to remain working there if it took ‰’leaving’ for them to actually give you that worthy pay rise?

2.) This pay rise they offer, where is the money coming from? Will you get a pay rise again? Can they afford to pay you more?

3.) Your current employer is now aware that you were unhappy, they know you wanted to leave and move on to pastures new. They will always question your loyalty to the company from now onwards. Be aware you can risk losing any trust between you and your manager.

4.) It’s the end of the financial or calendar year, and your current employer is awarding promotions or pay rises to certain staff members within the organisation. Are they going to offer you one? The answer to that is probably not.

5.) They could unfortunately face financial difficulties, and undoubtedly they will have cut backs to make. If the staffing levels need to be reduced, they will more than likely cut back with you. You wanted to actively leave before, and you are now earning more money. Alarm bells ring, and you are out the door….

6.) If you decide to leave again, there will be that same cycle. This time, they probably wouldn’t offer a pay rise again anyway – unless of course, you are their top sales performer and make a massive impact on sales. They probably won’t promote you either. And going back to point one, why did they not promote you before you handed your notice in?

7.) Most motivators to leave are not down to the money, it’s down to other factors. They won’t change, even if they pay you double what you are already earning. Money is not the answer to everything!

Is it worth staying there another couple of months? Why did you decide to leave in the first place? If it’s just because of the money, perhaps it would have been better if you had just sat down with your boss and asked for a pay rise. As it may now put them on a back foot.

If you handed your notice in as you didn’t like the company, then why would you accept the counter offer? You handed your notice in for a reason, you didn’t like the company and you wanted to move on.

To conclude, if you have seen that image recently, which shows a percentage of candidates they stay or leave after a counter offer, then it will really make you think again. It shows that 75% of people who accepted their counter offer left within 6 months, and 25% stayed with the business for more than 6 months. Now there is food for thought!