I am in a unique position in life and it is my first time having thing happen to me so I’m looking for some advice. Friday I was offered a job for a 13% raise. This morning when I turned my letter of resignation into my boss, before I called to accept the offer, he told me that he wouldn’t take it yet. He wanted to offer me more money this afternoon; we have a meeting at 1:00 so there is a time limit on the advice. I like the new job offer, which is why I was going to take it, but it involves moving away from my family and friends. So I have no real problem with staying here for money. My question how much is standard for these circumstances? Do I ask for 10% more then my new offer or do I base it off my current salary?
You might try telling them, “I have received a substantially better offer. What’s in your budget?”
Now’s also the time to ask for more vacation, company car, or whatever strikes your fancy. It may be likelier to fly if it costs them less.
Emphasize that you really want to stay because of your friends, etc. Don’t forget to make sure, after the fact, that you want to make sure you’re worth the extra money and are happy with your decision.
Good luck!
I would hesitate to take any offer they give you that isn’t significantly more than what you were offered by the new company. As much as they want to keep you now they know you were looking to leave the company and that could very easily come back to bite you in the ass later. But if they value you enough to make a big adjustment to your salary it might be worth staying.
If you are getting a 13% raise at the other place, it only makes sense to ask for 13% at your current place.
The downside to keep in mind with this sort of thing is twofold;
1> Resentment. Not just from your boss, but from your co-workers. Your boss may (probably will) resent you for “disloyalty” over looking to quit for more money and his having to pay you much more than he did. Then expect to hear sniping and gossip from co-workers about the situation.
2> Since they gave you a big fat raise to stay, you’re going to pay for it. Almost certain that you will not get a raise at your next review. You will be expected to do a lot more work for the money. And if your boss is really unhappy about it, your reviews may start to suffer and you might find yourself on the recieving end of some really unjust reprisals aimed at making you look bad and possibly sabotaging your career in the long run.
Not saying this will happen, just something to keep in mind when considering an offer to stay. Take careful mental notes of the atttitudes of all involved, from your Manager, to his boss, to HR. If they’re negative about the whole thing, DON’T DO IT. Take the new job and move on.
Maybe I’m just too cynical in my old age, but **Chimera ** has the best advice. Be very wary of any attempt to keep you. Make sure you feel the love, and lots of it.
And let us know what happens.
I think your right pbbth that I should worry about them remembering later that I was once willing to leave and need to make enough extra to cover that possibility. As much as I’m attracted to getting a 26% raise out of this whole thing I worry about ruining my reputation in the industry as a whole its relatively small and I’m early in my career.
Ya I have also asked for additional responsibility along with the added money. I though my bosses response was great “Oh, I though I was protecting you.” I guess helicopter parents aren’t just at home.
I guess my whole problem with this type of scenario is that it’s a wee bit insulting and smacks of blackmail. If you’re so valuable, why weren’t you being paid this amount before? Why does it take the threat of you leaving to get more money?
Why does it matter. The boss could always wish the OP luck at the new job and not match the offer. When the price of gas goes up, should your local station just keep selling at the old price?
Really, you could flip your comment right around. If Oredigger is worth $(X +13%), why is he/she still working for $X?
Because capitalism requires organizations to secure the best resources at the least cost.
Why didn’t Orediggier ask for more responsibility, more feed-back, and a six month review?
It is perfectly reasonable to keep one finger of the pulse of one’s industry, and only polite to give one’s current employer ‘first refusal’ if a better opportunity shows up.
Oredigger, atypical pay raises don’t make you look greedy, they make you look worth it. Do not accept a counter-offer for less than 13%. Regretfully explain that the opportunity for growth at the new company is too good to pass up.
Be very, very nice about leaving; every industry is a small industry.
Have you had an earlier discussion at your current job about a raise and been turned down? If so, think about what they told you then about why they couln’t give you more, and what they say now about why they can.
Act accordingly – if you decide they bullshitted you before, make it clear that there is a penalty for the bullshit, and it won’t be an acceptable excuse the next time around.
What I’m really saying is that my bias would be toward taking the new job if the story they give today shows up the bullshit of yesterday. So either just say no, or make it VERY expensive to keep you.
I vote with chimera. Do not even hesitate to move on. Once you have made it known you have a solid offer and are considering it, your days are numbered. Besides, if you don’t take the offer, I will tell Coach Green where you are and that you need counseling 
Thanks for all of the great advice. The last time I had a review I was under a boss who disliked young engineers and thought they were incapable of doing real work.
All that happened yesterday was my annual performance review, a bit late because my new boss forgot about it until he had to figure out if I qualified for a raise, turns out that while I’m a valued member of the team I don’t qualify for a promotion. Nevertheless, he is going to try to push it through five levels of upper management to get me an equivalent raise. I was told it would take 3 years to get the first promotion so this isn’t a surprise for me.
I have decided that unless the counteroffer is spectacular I’m not going to accept it and even then, I’m going to have to think about it. I’m happy with the new job and company and I think I will get good experiences. If I stay, I will have to fight to get my share of the work because I’m sure they will quickly go back to regarding me as someone who needs protection. I’ll update this afternoon with results.
This was exactly what I was going to say. In many companies, even though they make you a counter-offer, once they know you’re actively looking for something else or even considering it, they might start looking elsewhere as well.
What does one have to do, besides good work, to “qualify” for promotion? I have heard of places where you have to stay in your first job for 6 months, but three years is outlandish. Does anyone even stay that long?
Well so far no. Out of the three guys that I graduated with who all went to work the same job at the same company I am the only one remaining. Well actually, I guess no one is left. I called the new company yesterday before I even got the counter offer.
I was called into my boss’ boss’ office yesterday. He told me that they were going to give me my yearly raise two months early plus a little extra to stay but he didn’t know how much. Then he told me that they are restructuring my department and promoting a currently equivalent engineer to be the supervisor of myself and the other young engineer, but I shouldn’t think of it as a demotion I’m just going to be able to get one-on-one supervision. Ya right. Therefore, I was offered more money and more responsibility for a demotion. :rolleyes:
Anyhow, last night I was called up by my boss to extend the monetary part of the offer. A ten percent raise over my current salary. It was all they could get approved but still way less then my future salary. Man am I glad I didn’t wait around for that.
Oh and back to how come I don’t deserve a promotion the way they do it at my company is with a skills map which basically you check off as you do different assignments. Since I was protected, I have only been able to check out about 3/4 of the assignments thereby making me undeserving of a promotion.
Good move, Oredigger77 and congratulations. Sounds pretty clear you had a very limited future in the old company and were not going to be able to advance your career by staying there. Any time your boss limits your future and denies you opportunities to advance yourself, it’s time to get going. Glad you had a way to do that and make significantly more in the process!
For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing for yourself. 
See you at the Carrol game in fall?
Good decision! With policies like that, I would think your old company is going to die a not so slow death.
In Captain Eddie Rickenbacker’s autobiography, he said the following (paraphrased, as I don’t have the exact quote):
I went in to my boss and told him I was leaving, as I had an offer that would pay me 75 cents more an hour (this was in 1914, BTW). He took me up to his office, and said, “Eddie, I can’t afford to lose you. I’ll pay you a dollar an hour more to stay.”
I immediately picked up my tools and walked out. Hearing my boss tell me that he thought I was worth a dollar an hour more than he had been paying me for the past year was just the thing I needed to hear to tip me over to the new offer.
I’ve thought about that every time I’ve been offered more money to stay at a job. If they thought I was that much more valuable, why didn’t they offer me that extra money in the first place?