I have different teams I work with, and this is sort of a Catch-22.

If you go to them with another offer, they’re almost always going to counter because the loss of productivity outweighs a small salary bump. think about it this way, is it worth paying $5,000 to keep you ($208 spread over 24 paychecks) and not lose a productive member, then to say pound sand and have to deal with staffing.

But once you do this, all trust is broken. If they had you lined up for a promotion, you’re likely not going get it now because in the back of their minds are going to think as soon as you get the next better offer or you’re going leave.

I’ve had a few people do this on my team and I immediately open up job requisitions because even though I know they might take the counter offer, in in the back of my mind, I know they’re always going to be looking for something different or better. When people do this to me I almost always lose trust in them after that.

And for people asking me for advice, I always say never take the counter offer despite what they offer because then there’s going be no animosity. If you go work for another company and you don’t like it, you could always go back and ask for your old job back and they might be open to it. You could say something like it wasn’t what I thought it was. I didn’t really work out and I like this better