Should I Stay or Should I Go?

All stoked up about that job offer? The details in hand, now is decision time. Go down the list – job scope and title, your new colleagues, company stability and prestige, corner office, compensation and benefits, check that list and yep everything is in place so time to accept that offer. Now the hard part, telling your current boss who you know will be crest fallen because after all they love you in your current job but just aren’t paying you enough money. If only they had told you how valuable you are then maybe you would not have looked elsewhere for another opportunity. But this might work out once you tell them you are leaving; maybe they will find the money and ask you to stay. Renewed confidence, you break the news to your boss that another company wants you and……what’s this, they make you a counteroffer to keep you? More money, better title, and you get to stay put, how could this be anything but a bonanza? Score!

Hang on my friend, accepting a counter offer from your current employer is often a bad bargain. There is more to it than your immediate perspective, and there are consequences that may not be immediately apparent in this situation. Here’s what you are gambling:

o Credibility: If you take a counter offer you are damaging your credibility with both companies. You just went through the hiring process with a company that brought you to the point of offer. They invested time, resources, and a hiring manager at least has stepped up internally within that company to be your advocate to bring you to the point of offer. By accepting a counteroffer from your current employer, you are essentially saying that you were using them as leverage to get a better deal out of your boss. That employer will be frustrated that you used them solely as leverage and feel tricked by your apparent previous interest in their company. The double whammy is that you have now also planted the seeds of doubt with your current employer by revealing that you are looking elsewhere for career opportunities. They will doubt your loyalty and, even if you accept their counteroffer, will doubt your longevity. In fact, a lot of employers will start looking for your replacement immediately even if you stay, assuming that you won’t stick around much longer. You may as well light a match to your believability with either of these companies because you just burned two bridges simultaneously. If you did this all through a search firm, then you hit the trifecta because you just damaged your credibility with the recruiter. Good luck working with any of these people again.

o Money does not buy happiness: We are not talking the lottery jackpot here. Maybe your current compensation is contributing to your lack of job satisfaction, but compensation alone is not going to solve your motivational problem. Job hunting is not a sport, so be honest with yourself about why you were looking in the first instance. There are all kinds of perfectly legitimate reasons why you are pursuing a job change. Be honest with yourself about what those are, and what will ignite and excite you in your next role. The money in a counteroffer is never enough to offset your pursuit of different/better/more elsewhere. There are trade offs in every move and you should evaluate them carefully, but be circumspect about replacing money for other values.

o It is never what you think: Chances are that counteroffer comes with strings attached. It’s not as if the company just found money in the bank they forgot to pay you. It could mean greater scope of responsibility, more travel or investment of time on your part, or higher level of performance expectations, all of which may come at a personal sacrifice on your part. Even if it is more money for the exact same job you have been performing then you best check the fine print for claw-back provisions or stricter non-compete provisions. No counteroffer is free.

o Ego: Are you trying to get your employer to say you are indispensible by manipulating them to come up with a counteroffer? In this economy? What are you thinking? The best way to get your employer to demonstrate their appreciation for your contribution is through excellence in performance. Period. If you think you are not getting the credit you deserve, have THAT conversation with your manager, and think carefully about how you market yourself and the accomplishments of your team internally.

o Apples to oranges: When comparing an offer and a counteroffer, there can be several components which factor into the equation of how the comp packages end up looking different. Lawyers for example are compensated very differently in a corporate environment than they are in a law firm. Public companies structure their pay differently than privately held companies or non-profit entities. Along with those differences are also subtle differences in the style of the role. Add that up and of course the compensation looks different. By the same analysis, the exact same job in a substantially similar sized company is not going to have a huge disparity in compensation. You should not expect to substantially improve your compensation by taking the exact same job you have now by moving to a competitor.

Other articles describing counteroffer effectiveness mention studies which suggest that the majority of people who accept a counteroffer leave for another job within a year. I wonder how many of those people burned bridges along the way and found that what they bargained for was a bust and not the bonanza they expected?

LOVE YOUR JOB

On the opening day of baseball season I had a rare opportunity to be a flag bearer of the gigantic US flag carried out onto the field for the national anthem before the start of the game. Many of you have seen these at sporting events or before a big game on TV. We had a rehearsal the day before to sync our timing and handle the flag properly, and in doing so we practiced in the venue – the playing field at Safeco Field in Seattle. As a middle aged woman I can’t imagine having another sanctioned opportunity to be on a professional sports field, so it was a new experience and, as a baseball fan, quite a thrill. As we first stepped onto the baseball field I was a little overwhelmed – the smell of fresh cut lawn, looking up into a beautiful stadium, my first thought was “why do they pay these guys anything to come to this office everyday? They play a GAME, applause greets you when you arrive (except for A-Rod in this town anyway)….baseball players should work for free!”

We know, of course, that they don’t. In fact, their compensation levels are sky high compared to almost any other line of work. One could debate the merits of professional sports compensation endlessly, but let’s leave that commentary for someone else’s blog. The reality is that no one works for free – it’s an untenable proposition. But playing a game as a job, what fun! How lucky is anyone to have that choice?

I know a woman who recently left her senior management job after 11 years of working for a profitable brand-name Fortune company, where she was well-compensated and considered a strong performer and leader. She does not have another job lined up, no big severance to fall back on….in this economy?

Oh and the law firm and corporate lay-offs just keep coming, with perfectly talented professional people who have never needed to look for a new job suddenly thrust into this horrible economy when few are hiring. What to do next?

What do they have in common? The choice of doing something they love! No matter what you do for a profession, work SHOULD be as fun as it can possibly be. We have all heard the popular saying “work for free and you will never work a day in your life.” Passion for your profession plays an important role in career satisfaction and has a significant positive impact on job performance. It stands to reason that the happier you are in your work, the better you will perform, which will contribute to your personal bottom line. Employers all factor personal performance metrics into their compensation system at some level, be it base salary increases, bonus rewards, or other long term incentives. Even highly paid athletes have performance incentives built into their contracts. Home runs do more than win games and make fans happy.

Professional work is hard enough without enjoying it. Whether or not you are at a point where you are considering your next career move, there is no better time than now to articulate this part of your professional vision. It is too easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks to stop and focus on this, however it may be one of the best things you do for your career. Consider it a piece of self-assigned homework. Set aside an hour of time, situate yourself in front of a blank screen/whiteboard/paper and pen in a distraction minimized zone (locked bathrooms work, if nothing else) and make two columns – likes and dislikes. Brainstorm about your professional work and list items in each column specific to you. What do you like about your job content, your profession, the kind of work environment where you are happiest, the pet peeves or tasks you don’t like doing, the things you do not do well, qualities you want in a boss, the industries or topics you find dreadfully boring…you get the idea. Write it all down in their respective plus and minus columns. Some of the items will be tied to other life priorities – supporting a family is one example. On the other hand, maybe your misery index will encourage you to retool your budget and accept a lower income in another kind of work that increases your daily dose of personal fulfillment and lowers your blood pressure.

Unless you commit your criteria to a tangible document you will lose sight of all these elements. Once you commit it to paper, it will be much easier to see trends and set priorities. Developing a professional vision around your talents can be very liberating and enlightening. Armed with your list, you are now well positioned to make informed choices about everything affecting your career. You may make trade-offs along the way as you use this list to evaluate a new job and as you move throughout your professional career. That’s ok, and encouraged. Examine the list from time to time, make changes or additions, and tweak your criteria as you consider new options. Give that list a long hard list when you get a job offer and compare it to what you are signing up for in the new gig. Is there something you should explore a little further before taking that new job, maybe something in the minus column that should be fleshed out? Job offers, particularly good ones, have a way of obfuscating the downside. It pays to be vigilant and thoughtful before you leap. Your plus and minus list will keep you honest and focused. The important thing is that you have a tool to keep on track and your eyes on the happiness prize. We may not be so fortunate as to choose a job with a built-in adoring public, but truly enjoying what you do may well make it seem less like work, and more like a game.