Walking Through Fire: Tips for Handling a Counter Offer from your Food & Beverage Employer the RIGHT Way

April 3, 2013 in Career and Job Search Tips

 

 

Receiving a counter offer from your food & beverage employer is flattering.  And tempting.  Watching your boss scramble to keep you in the fold by offering more money and/or responsibility certainly sounds like a good deal – but is it really the right choice?

Probably not.  Here’s why:

  • Your reputation with your boss may be undermined.  Even though your boss initially assures you that you’re too valuable for the company to lose, he may eventually begin resenting you for “extorting” money or power from the firm.  The sense of affiliation between you and your boss will be severed, and he may never fully trust you again.
  • It becomes all about the money.  Once you accept the counter offer, your relationship is now almost entirely predicated on cash, and that is not a healthy foundation.
  • You’ll be expected to perform like a new hire.  If you stay, you’ll be forced to prove yourself all over again to justify the increased salary or promotion.  If you’re promoted beyond your abilities and fail to perform up to standards, you could easily find yourself on the unemployment line.
  • Finally, if word gets out about the deal, your relationships with coworkers could also be damaged. Peers may be envious that you got more money by turning in notice and wonder why you deserved that.

Take time to reflect upon the real reasons you sought out other career opportunities in the first place.  Then, ask yourself this question: If you accept the counter offer, will those same reasons continue to exist at your current employer?  If the answer is “Yes,” it’s clearly time to move on.  Use these tips to handle the turn-down the right way:

  • Take charge of the situation.  Resign in writing but hand the resignation to your boss.  This helps you stay in control of what is typically a stressful experience.
  • Tell whoever is making you the counter offer that you genuinely appreciate it, but that you’ve given the matter considerable thought and have decided that a career move is in your best interest.
  • Explain that you are grateful for the chance to contribute to the overall success of the company.
  • Finally, assure your boss that you will do everything in your power to make the transition for your replacement as smooth and painless as possible.

Looking for a better food & beverage career opportunity? 

Kinsa Group’s discipline-specific recruiting professionals can help you succeed.  We will learn about your career goals, innate aptitudes, work style, management philosophies and personality traits to match you with an opportunity that provides the challenge and compensation you deserve.

Best of all, our recruiters will confidentially search for positions on your behalf while you continue working.  Get started with Kinsa today or search food & beverage executive and professional jobs here.