Anyone accepted a counter offer from an employer?

[child of wonder]

I remember reading many other threads of people asking if they should take a counter offer or not and the general consensus is "no." However, I'm curious if anyone can share stories of times they took a counter offer from a current employer.

Why did you want to leave in the first place? Bad environment? Pay?
Do you regret staying?
Did anything change for the better?

I may be in this situation soon. I like the people I work with but every single layer of management above me feels they need to personally get their paws into my projects, override my decisions, second guess me, or play cutesy political games with me. One of the things I enjoy most with being a Sr. Admin is planning for the future, implementing new technologies, and brain storming. I feel my creativity is hampered in this environment.

Sure, this will be present in many places but I'd like to think there's somewhere out there where one's bosses don't do this.

EDIT: I should clarify -- I mean you currently work somewhere, apply elsewhere, new place offers you a job, you inform your current job, current job gives counter offer to keep you.

UPDATE: Got an offer from one of the jobs I applied for. Opening offer is $4k more than I make now plus an additional week vacation and profit sharing. Will make a counter and see what happens.

Will also take this info to my bosses soon and see how that goes down.

UPDATE 2: I hate negotiating. I made a counter offer 4.5% higher to the new company and he said he already asked for the max HR would give me. Doesn't think they'll go higher but he'll try. Negotiating sucks but I'd hate myself if I never tried.

UPDATE 3: My counter offer to the new place was rejected. I decided to accept anyway. Sounds like it'll be a much better place to work. Benefits are better for sure. Will put in my 2 weeks tomorrow.

UPDATE 4: Gave my two week notice today. Decided to skip over my boss and go to his since I figured no matter how amicable I try to remain with the company, I don't really trust my immediate boss to convey those feelings to his boss. Conversation went well. I could tell my resignation hit him out of the clear blue. In the end, he understood why I'm leaving, wishes he could offer more money to keep me but doesn't think it'll happen because of how cheap his boss is but, strangely enough, said he can probably get approval to have me spend a few hours after my 2 weeks as a consultant to help train my replacement.

I told him my beefs with my boss, with the company, etc. but in a respectful way. He listened and agreed that things are not ideal. However, he wishes me the best of luck, said I will leave with nothing but respect and if the new job does not work out I can have my old job back immediately, even if that day comes a year down the road.

UPDATE 5: Got a message on Facebook from my immediate boss congratulating me on the new job. Said he is truly happy I've found something with better pay and benefits.

We'll see how it goes on Monday.

UPDATE 6: Incompetence abounds. My boss was overheard saying that instead of hiring a replacement for me and the other server admin being deployed in 5 weeks we should instead cross train everyone in our office (a Novell admin, lady who manages surf control and AS/400, 2 network admins, and a project manager) on VMware, blades, SAN, etc. and then supplement them with consultants.

Amazing the effort and money they'll exhaust to not only do things wrong, but to go to any means not to actually pay employees yet they'll waste massive amounts of cash on consultants.

 

[SSSnail]

If I have to counter, it probably wasn't worth it. My experience so far, that sentiment holds true.

 

[zoiks]

Looks like you have a strong personality and you like to override everyone in every joint decision.

 

[SunnyD]

Yes.

A couple years ago I started looking, got an offer, has some misgivings about the potential company, presented the offer to my manager who ran it up the poll, got a counter raise, stayed for the rest of the year before I found a job I actually felt I would like.

I didn't regret staying, I did some good work and I liked (most) of the people I worked with, had lots of friends there.

The only thing that changed for the better is that I had the opportunity to sew in the seeds to make my co-worker's life fucking miserable, which he deserved for many MANY reasons.

 

[AreaCode707]

I accepted a counter offer from my current employer (was working for T-Mobile, was offered a job from MS). MS offered me $5k more than I was making, which was lower than I had hoped. I really liked my current boss, told her about the offer, and she told me that if I stayed she'd make it work my while at review time (about two months off). I agreed, declined the MS offer, and my boss gave me about a $10k raise at review time.

It worked out, but about 8 months later my boss went to work at MS and I wound up working for a manager I really didn't like on a team that had a really shitty environment. Quit and went and worked at third company x, where I am today.

 

[BoberFett]

Staying for money will rarely work out, unless the reason you're leaving is simply due to money.

At one job the owner offered to buy me a brand new Harley Ultra Glide if I stayed through project completion. I stayed a couple months but left anyway because I wasn't happy in the job. That was over four years ago and from what I hear the project is still years away from completion. One of the reasons I wanted to leave was lack of commitment to the project.

At my current job I got a promotion along with pretty significant salary increase when I gave my notice. I'm still not happy for a variety of reasons, but I make a lot of money. I'll leave when I can find a job that pays in the same ballpark, there's no loyalty involved.

 

[kranky]

A different angle, but why not do better at getting support from your management so they leave you alone? You might call it being "political" but when your job consists of trying to plan for the future and implement new technologies, you must get support from higher-ups.

Are you sharing your plans, showing how what you want to do will support the overall business goals of the company? Or to look at it from the other direction, do you factor in the overall business goals when developing your plans?

I've had good luck putting in new technology in areas I'm not even responsible for, by talking about my ideas first, explaining what I think the benefits will be, gauging the level of interest, figuring out how to start small with a pilot, show success, then get money for a larger roll-out.

I honestly have never had a boss who micromanaged me, and I've had a LOT of bosses over the years.

Give some thought to WHY they all do this to you. Maybe you can fix it without having to leave.

 

[CrimsonWolf]

Yeah, I've accepted a counter offer, but it was for a geography problem - not a pay problem.

I had to go back and forth between locations for several months at a time, at it was becoming a huge pain. I accepted an offer for a different job at home with minimal travel. When I notified my employer, they counter offered by letting me work out of my home office year-round. I accepted the counter offer and was grateful for it because it's otherwise been great working here. It's been about a year since and it has worked well.

For your situation though it doesn't seem like a counter-offer would fix the root problem. It'd just be more $$ for the same problems. I wouldn't do it unless you can talk to management and try to work these things out.

 

[Kanalua]

College Job, not a real office job or anything, just something to pay the bills in college. Our old boss got stationed in Iraq and we had no boss for 6 months (old boss was very nice, and would let us get away with anything). New boss comes into picture and it sucks, especially after not having a boss for six months.

Reason for wanting to leave: Pay and position. Threatened to leave and my boss talked to me, offered $2 pay raise (which was about a 20% raise!) and make my foreman/driver of the crew (he was going to be getting his own vehicle). I stayed and loved it...wasn't as nice as not having a boss (or a pushover, either), but for the work I did and the amount of money i was paid, it paid for college nice!

 

[mozirry]

glad i didn't accept the counter offer

 

[child of wonder]

To elaborate on some of the issues here, my boss is a nice guy. He's one you can hang out with outside of work with and he'll buy you drinks, have parties at his house (divorced and got to keep his 4 bedroom house with hot tub), etc.

However, he can be very conniving, manipulative, and bi-polar. One minute he's joking with you, the next he's insulting your intelligence. He's also friends with a higher up at a vendor and his personal bias towards them shows. For example, some funds became available to IT as part of a merger and we had to spend the money ASAP by a certain date. We decided to put that towards DR. I outlined a nice proposal involving backing up our VMs and syncing those backups daily to the DR site. At worst, we'd be a day behind. At first, everyone was pleased with the solution and we'd have money left over for infrastructure upgrades, etc. Well, then he talked with his vendor friend and was convinced to go with a much more expensive product to get our DR level down to 15 minutes. This new product was completely foreign to me and I was (and am) still getting my feet wet managing the FC SAN. This new product forced us to be reliant on the vendor's knowledge and expertise to get it in place.

We purchased the product from the vendor along with some hardware upgrades. Paid for 3 weeks of their engineers time to get it up and running. We've had nothing but problems getting it working with what appears to be a network problem since we use a MPLS WAN connection from the DC to the DR.

Long story short, my boss is now throwing me under the bus for the product not working even though we paid to have their engineers set it up.

On top of that, pay where I work is abysmal. My pay is decent at $51k but as a now Sr. Sys Admin managing blade servers, SAN, VMware, Linux, LDAP, BBES, DNS, etc. I'm still underpaid. The other Sys Admin make a paltry $35k. Despite positive reviews the last 3 years, they refuse to give him a raise because he's been at Army training each April (when raises are determined).

Now this other Admin is being deployed for a year. We were given approval to hire a permanent replacement. First we interviewed Jr. admins with me as their lead. After 2 interviews and one of them driving 100 miles to visit with us, my boss's boss changes his mind and wants someone with more experience. Fine. We interview 5 people for the Sr. spot. We decide to offer the position to one of them (who drove 180 miles to interview) and really like a 2nd. However, the two of them make $57k and $52k each, which is more than what I or anyone else (save for management) makes in our department. So they decide to have an existing employee, a 50+ year old Novell guy who works at the DR site 200 miles away, to due his duties plus be the Sr. Sys Admin (with no pay raise).

As far as explaining my ideas, introducing them slowly, etc. I try that. When I get money allocated to me for new projects, I implement those ideas the best I can while still fulfilling the needs of the project. When I started here 18 months ago, no metrics were being gathered on the servers so I set up Cacti and now all servers and network equipment is monitored and graphed, we had an eDirectory infrastructure but it was only used for PC authentication and I have since integrated everything from VPN to TACACS with LDAP, no server documentation existed and I've created detailed server dossiers for each physical and virtual machine along with less detailed spreadsheets, network ports weren't labeled and I've solved that.

Essentially, things were and are a mess. I work hard to rectify it but I can only do so much. Being that my raise last year was 2% and this year will again be 2% I think I can do better.

If I get an offer from one of the companies I've applied for, I'll give my current job a chance to counter offer. I like the people I work with and the environment, for the most part, is very laid back. However, it would take a decent pay increase plus a promotion with decision making powers granted to me in writing for me to consider staying.

That probably won't happen, but on the off chance it does I've been curious if others have accepted counter offers and have been happy with that decision.

 

[brtspears2]

I almost did. But I am glad that I didn't. 35 mile commute to office, another 50 mile commute to clients. 200 miles/day on the road in LA/OC area is hell. I was offered 35% payraise, $5k cash, and a new Toyota Prius (take home car for business use).

6 months after I rejected the offer, the company folded. Hilarious.

 

[kranky]

Sounds like you're doing all you can. With a boss like that, you cannot win.

All you need to know was evident when they wouldn't pay $57K for a qualified admin. Having worked at places which acted in a similar fashion, I think you can expect 2% raises for the rest of your career there.

Why would you even WANT to accept a counteroffer, if you land an offer for a better job with more pay somewhere else? I know you like the atmosphere, but don't let inertia seduce you into staying in a lousy job. Keep learning new skills, keep your resume up to date, and start networking.

 

[BoberFett]

$51K for a knowledgeable admin? What part of the country? Sounds like you're getting hosed.

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: BoberFett
$51K for a knowledgeable admin? What part of the country? Sounds like you're getting hosed.

South Dakota

Salary.com for this area would put me in the bottom 15% salary range.

I'm supposed to be a "Senior" Sys Admin but the title is meaningless when I'm not afforded any decision making capabilities. Looks OK on the resume though.

 

[child of wonder]

UPDATE -- see OP

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: child of wonder
UPDATE: Got an offer from one of the jobs I applied for. Opening offer is $3k more than I make now plus an additional week vacation and profit sharing. Will make a counter and see what happens.

Will also take this info to my bosses soon and see how that goes down.

Only if you're prepared to be let go on the spot, correct?

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: child of wonder
UPDATE: Got an offer from one of the jobs I applied for. Opening offer is $3k more than I make now plus an additional week vacation and profit sharing. Will make a counter and see what happens.

Will also take this info to my bosses soon and see how that goes down.

Only if you're prepared to be let go on the spot, correct?

Then the other server guy I work with will walk out with me. He's being deployed to the Middle East in 6 weeks and he hates it here.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: child of wonder

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: child of wonder
UPDATE: Got an offer from one of the jobs I applied for. Opening offer is $3k more than I make now plus an additional week vacation and profit sharing. Will make a counter and see what happens.

Will also take this info to my bosses soon and see how that goes down.

Only if you're prepared to be let go on the spot, correct?

Then the other server guy I work with will walk out with me. He's being deployed to the Middle East in 6 weeks and he hates it here.

He has another job offer too?

How do you plan on bringing up this counter offer to your bipolar boss? Unless, you're prepared to be let go on the spot then you shouldn't be going to your boss looking for a counter offer.

 

[ivan2]

the place you work for sounds like every other company.

 

[rasczak]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: child of wonder
UPDATE: Got an offer from one of the jobs I applied for. Opening offer is $3k more than I make now plus an additional week vacation and profit sharing. Will make a counter and see what happens.

Will also take this info to my bosses soon and see how that goes down.

Only if you're prepared to be let go on the spot, correct?

that's a good question. Suggestion is to take the offer given to ensure that the job is lined up for you, then seek a counter offer. at least you don't get hosed when the boss says go and pack your things.

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: child of wonder

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: child of wonder
UPDATE: Got an offer from one of the jobs I applied for. Opening offer is $3k more than I make now plus an additional week vacation and profit sharing. Will make a counter and see what happens.

Will also take this info to my bosses soon and see how that goes down.

Only if you're prepared to be let go on the spot, correct?

Then the other server guy I work with will walk out with me. He's being deployed to the Middle East in 6 weeks and he hates it here.

He has another job offer too?

How do you plan on bringing up this counter offer to your bipolar boss? Unless, you're prepared to be let go on the spot then you shouldn't be going to your boss looking for a counter offer.

He'll be deployed for a year and is coming back with a year of 1st Lt. pay. He doesn't care.

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: rasczak

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: child of wonder
UPDATE: Got an offer from one of the jobs I applied for. Opening offer is $3k more than I make now plus an additional week vacation and profit sharing. Will make a counter and see what happens.

Will also take this info to my bosses soon and see how that goes down.

Only if you're prepared to be let go on the spot, correct?

that's a good question. Suggestion is to take the offer given to ensure that the job is lined up for you, then seek a counter offer. at least you don't get hosed when the boss says go and pack your things.

Very true. I'll make my counter to the new place later today and work on accepting the position.

After that, I'll talk to the bosses here.

 

[kranky]

First law of Wingwalking: Don't let go of what you've got till you've got hold of something else.

Say nothing to your current boss until the new job is a done deal, in writing. Then simply tell your current boss you're giving your two week notice. From reading your posts in this thread, why even ask for a counteroffer, or even entertain the thought? You need to GTHO of there.

 

[child of wonder]

Originally posted by: kranky
First law of Wingwalking: Don't let go of what you've got till you've got hold of something else.

Say nothing to your current boss until the new job is a done deal, in writing. Then simply tell your current boss you're giving your two week notice. From reading your posts in this thread, why even ask for a counteroffer, or even entertain the thought? You need to GTHO of there.

I'd only entertain the thought of staying if they made a stellar counter offer. I'm 99.9% sure they won't as a matter of pride so it's a moot point.