If you’re like many people in the post-pandemic workforce, you’re giving a good deal of thought to making a career change. According to LinkedIn, 73% of the post-pandemic workforce has a new outlook on the future of their career and 51% are looking in to make a change.
In this hot market, it isn’t unusual for employees to quickly find new job opportunities that are paying more and provide greater flexibility than their current employer. Once you accept your new offer and notify your employer that you will be moving on, they may try to keep you. Be cautious and proceed with care
Things May Not Change
The underlying issues that prompted you to consider other job opportunities will remain there – things and people don’t change overnight. Flexibility may be promised, but if your current company doesn’t already have a flexible work policy in place, this transition may not be what you are expecting. Your current company may not be able to provide the flexible work environment that the offer company already has in place.
Slow Career Growth
Great things never come from staying within your comfort zone. You may feel familiar and comfortable with your current employer, but does it bring you the job satisfaction that you desire? Often, a change will bring growth and transformation.
Poor Pay Habits
If your employer is willing to adjust your salary when you “threaten” to resign, then your employer is knowingly underpaying you for your talent and efforts, an indication of non-appreciation of their employees.
Broken Trust
Often, resignation is seen as a “lack of loyalty”, and your current employer may now question if they can count on you, which will limit your future growth. 40% of managers say that counteroffers cause trust issues.
Lack of Belonging
Your employer may question your convictions knowing now that you can be “bought”. People who accept a counteroffer often feel that they have been bought rather than rewarded for the work they have done. This dissatisfaction will eventually affect your sense of belonging to the company.
Delayed Future Raise
It may be a long time before you get another raise. If increasing your pay is a motivator, it’s usually because your current employer was not proactive in paying market rates. Chances are they will be less than generous with you moving forward as they may have felt forced to provide a counteroffer.
Short Future
Employers may start to look for your replacement immediately. They may be willing to pay you more or give you the flexibility that you would like, but it will be short-lived until they find your replacement at a lower salary.
First To Layoff
If your company needs to make future cuts, you will be at the top of the list. National statistics indicate that 90% of people who accept counteroffers are gone in six months.
High Job Search Restart Rate
About 80% of those who accept counteroffers reignite their job search within 3 months. You may genuinely still do your best for your current employer, but your employer and co-workers may treat you differently now that you have shown a “lack of loyalty”.
Job Satisfaction
Staying will not ensure that your job is fulfilling. Having spoken to many job seekers and understanding their motivation and needs, these are some common reasons that prompted people to seek new job opportunities, either actively or passively:
• Feeling or unappreciated and underpaid
• Slow or no career progression
• Bored with the job scope or stressed with
• Political culture in the company
• Bad boss and long working hours
• Distance to work
While there may situations where things go smoothly when you accept a counteroffer from your employer; there is plenty of evidence to support that it is not likely to happen seamlessly.
