Articles From the Team
Counteroffers: should I stay or should I go?
Counteroffers are inevitably going to happen in the workplace, particularly given the current situation and the shortage of candidates actively considering new opportunities. To a certain degree, it's flattering if your firm puts up a fight for you; they're finally demonstrating how valuable you are to the team, but don't let that flattery obscure your judgement. In most cases a counter offer is made simply to mitigate the cost of hiring your replacement rather than addressing the issues that made you want to leave in the first place.
As with any break-up, you've known things aren't right for a while but the other person in the relationship keeps telling you things will change - will they really? In the same way, you wouldn't waste your time with someone who no longer makes you happy, neither should you waste valuable years of your career at the wrong firm when you could be advancing and crucially, happier elsewhere.
Generally, those who are convinced to accept a counteroffer remain unhappy and unfulfilled in their jobs and statistics show they tend to move on within 6-12 months - either by choice or through redundancy. Once you've expressed your desire to move on, it's difficult to regain that trust and loyalty and sometimes it can make the working environment uncomfortable.
It's important to ask yourself why it reached the point of you resigning, before your concerns were taken seriously. Perhaps you didn’t feel comfortable having a frank and honest conversation with you manager so you never expressed your concerns, which is worrying in itself and raises questions about your manager's approachability.
So think about this. When you receive your counter offer you need to remember the steps you have already taken to change your current situation. You’ve met your prospective new employer, considered a new role for weeks (possibly months), discussed it with family and friends, and having done all of this and weighed up your options you have decided that the decision to move is the right one. So why would you go back on this now?
It is fair to say that the recruitment of lawyers across the country has reached its highest level since before the covid-19 pandemic, therefore if you are considering a move there is no better time than now to take advantage of this candidate led market we find ourselves in.