they want you to stay - so you get a counter offer

Once someone pulls the pin, companies go into resignation mode. This can take many forms; including the bizarre. You might be frog-marched out the door (sometimes with your old boss trying to make you look as if you have been caught committing an unspeakable act). You might be schmoozed by your former colleagues saying how much they will miss you. You might be told you had been identified as a KEY PLAYER and that you are letting everyone down by leaving.

Make your decision to stay or go, then stick with it.

We have seen too many people get swayed by schmoozing or a counter offer; only to regret it within a few months.

Here are the 12 best reasons for NOT accepting a counter offer:

1. What type of company do you work for if you have to threaten to resign before they give you what you are worth?
2. Where is the money for the counter offer coming from? Is it your next pay rise early? Almost all companies have strict wage and salary guidelines, which must be followed.
3. Your company may immediately start looking for a new person at a lower salary, and replace you at their leisure.
4. You have now made your employer aware that you are unhappy. From this day on, your loyalty will always be in question.
5. When promotion time comes around, your employer may remember your resignation and question your loyalty.
6. If times get tough, your employer may well begin the cutbacks with you.
7. The same circumstances that now cause you to consider a change will almost certainly remain unchanged and repeat themselves in the future; even if you accept a counter offer.
8. Statistics show that if you accept a counter offer, the probability of voluntarily or involuntarily leaving in six to twelve months is extremely high.
9. Accepting a counter offer is an insult to your intelligence and a blow to your pride: knowing that you were bought.
10. Once the word gets out, the relationship that you now enjoy with your co-workers may never be the same. You will probably lose the personal satisfaction of peer-group acceptance.
11. Once you hand in the written resignation letter and then allow your boss to talk you out of it, he feels you can't make a decision and stick to it. You're weak and you certainly were using it only as a ploy to get attention or money. People who can't make a decision and stick to it are often considered too weak to manage.
12. The great irony of considering a counter offer is that there is no possible gain, only loss. This is the easiest business decision you will ever have to make; it has a zero down side risk and maximum upside potential. If you take this job and for any reason it doesn't work out, no matter what, you could always go back to your old company with respect and say “I made a mistake. You were right”. In the mean time you have the advantage of getting into this exciting career opportunity with all the benefits of the new opportunity.