Michael DeSafey | Executive Recruiter and HR Professional
Seven Reasons not to Accept Employment Counteroffers
Seven Reasons not to Accept Counteroffers When Considering Employment in the Construction, Engineering or Environmental Profession.
You have been ready to move on from your current job in the construction, engineering or environmental field for a while because you feel underpaid, stuck in a rut, and/ or unappreciated. Showing up at a job site is something that you have been doing because of obligations and even those barely get you out of bed and into work. Recently, you have spent the time needed job hunting, going to interviews and have handed in your resignation only to have your boss present you with a counteroffer, so that you will not leave. No matter how flattering the counter offer when you put in your resignation. You should not accept it for the following reasons.
- Accepting a counteroffer is a short-term solution to the problem. There is an underlying reason why you wanted to leave your job in the environmental, engineering or construction industries. It could be a lack of advancement opportunities, the general feeling that the career path you are on will not bring you the results you want, miserable working conditions, bad management and/or burnout. Even if the counteroffer includes remedies for the issues you are experiencing it may only be a matter of time before your negative feelings return.
- You should of been making what you are worth without the company being scared to lose you. The fact is they did not value you as an employee if they were not willing to pay you want you are worth. The company offering you a raise as part of their counter offer indicates that they are only thinking short-term about the risks and costs involved with hiring your replacement. Once they figure out how to replace you without it being problematic, you will be gone.
- Counteroffers are always more beneficial to the employer. Often, if the boss considers the timing of your resignation to be inconvenient for them, they will want to wait until it is better for them to fire you. So, if the company is heading into the holiday, busy season or you are working on a big project, they will want to offer you a promotion, more money and/or other perks because they do not want to spend the time and money on interviewing and hiring your replacement at that time. Once the holidays, busy period or project passes the company will no longer have a reason to keep you on.
- They are just buying time to find your replacement, who you will most likely train. Instead of waiting for you to put another resignation in, the company will often have you train your replacement. The company would have no reason to keep you in their employ once your replacement is trained.
- The boss may only be keeping you on to keep company morale up and/or to look good to upper management. They may also want to look good for the person or company that they are doing the engineering, construction, or environmental job for, and having one of their employees quit during the project does not look good for the company. As soon as this is no longer an issue they will have no problem firing you.
- Management will no longer trust you as you have demonstrated a lack of loyalty to the company.. Management will pass you up for promotions and you will be the first to be laid off because they know that you are not committed to the job. They will pass you up for long-term assignments and projects because they will be unsure that you will be around to complete them.
- Ninety percent of people who take the counteroffer will not have a job in a year and a half. Most employees leave a job or are fired within six months of accepting a counteroffer.
Michael DeSafey is a leading executive recruiter for professionals in the construction, engineering and environmental industries. He is currently the President of Webuild Staffing www.webuildstaffing.com . To learn more about Michael or to follow his blog please visit www.michaeldesafey.com