Quitting job; my company made me good counter-offer

[mreilly]

Boy, this is a tough one and I'd sure appreciate some of that brilliant DU insight. :-)

I'm a computer guy who has worked about an hour from my house for several years now. Because the commute was so crappy and the pace of the job more strenuous than I would like (we run from emergency to emergency without much chance to take a breath) I accepted a job closer to home thanks to the tireless efforts of a friend who works at this new company and kept telling his employer they should give me a chance because I was a superstar.

Now my current employer has made me a golden counter-offer: work from home full-time and stay with them. Come in as needed (the catch there is it might be daily, or once a month; most of what I do CAN be done remotely as long as the devices I need to work on are connected to the network; I have remote access from my home PC).

If only they'd offered me that a month or even 2 weeks ago, but now I feel I've committed to start working for the new company. They're excited to have me come on board to help out, and I'll be putting my friend in a lousy situation if I bail out on the situation since it was he who was my inside connection, telling them I was a good worker and honest guy.

I also feel that it might be better for my career to take the new job since I'll be working with some new stuff and continuing to socially network with people. The problem with working from home is that your career/social skills might stagnate.

I'm leaning towards continuing to take the job at the new company to fulfill my commitment to do so and start fresh with a new perspective at a new place. But I also hate to see the last of many of my coworkers, with whom I discussed this situation and all of whom feel I should cancel the new job and stay on working remotely.

Anyone know what the heck is the best option here?

[DS1]

1. New job

[Mutley]

2. I say take the new job.

Unless your old job suddenly offers significantly more money as well.

[I Have A Dream]

3. My vote is for the new job.

There are no guarantees in life, but it sounds as though you're ready for a change, and it sounds as though the company is a decent company. (I don't think that your friend would have recommended that you apply for the position otherwise. Right?)

Good luck whichever way you go, mreilly! :)

[mondo joe]

4. Go with whichever one is more exciting for you. A few years ago I was recruited

for 2 different jobs and accepted one - but then the other really coutred me like crazy. I ended up having to back out of my first committment (which I chose because it was more comfortable) - and it was the right decision.

[Norwood]

5. I say take the new job

Get a fresh start with the new company and lose the commute. Im in a similar situation, I live 65 miles from the office and Im tired of the job. The only difference is I havent gotten another job offer yet, which will hopefully change soon.

[pagerbear]

6. If they'd really cared about you, you'd have been working from home already.

Just my two cents.

[elehhhhna]

7. As an experienced Headhunter, I must weigh in --

DO NOT take the counter-offer. I've never seen anyone happy about doing so after 3 to 6 months. Take the new job (your gut's right!) AND offer to work weekends/eves on an as-needed basis from home as a Consultant for your present employer. Eveybody wins. Dont' set your hourly rate too cheap, either.

CONGRATS!

[mreilly]

10. Thanks everyone

I think I must go with the new job; better for my career and tech/people skills. Working from home sounds fun but I could also see myself getting cabin fever down in the basement, day in day out, and as far as coming into work on as "as needed" basis goes, who knows how often that may be. If I let the new opportunity slide, work from home full time from my current company and then find that I'm driving in 3-4 times per week, then that's 3/5 or 4/5 of the current stress of commuting now. I live in the Boston area and the highways are absolutely terrible; there is always a traffic jam or accident. You have to take back roads if you want to get anywhere and even then you have to deal with construction, detours, red lights, backups, etc.

The pay is better at the new job (forgot to mention that) - 7K higher. Bonuses, too, which are impossible to earn where I am. I am honestly not motivated by money and am not materialistic, but I have a stay-at-home wife and 2.75 kids (third one due in October) - taking the new job means my wife won't have to work part-time as she does now so we can make ends meet.

Elehhhhna also answered the unspoken question on my mind: I am skeptical of counter-offers because I have heard they don't work out. Management resents the uppity employee and often the issues that caused the employee to want to leave remain in place, thereby continuing their trend of dissatisfaction.

Lastly, in reflecting on what took place when I signed the offer letter with the new company I now recall I told the hiring manager, verbatim, that "I promise I won't let you down." I feel like calling him up to say "Sorry, my current company made me a good counter-offer" would certainly qualify as letting him down, given that they need someone to fill the role and I said I would.

I will continue on part-time with my current company, doing stuff evenings/weekends. If it falls through at the new place, then I'll return to them and try out the work-from-home deal at least to see how it pans out; that would still be 100 times better than mass-mailing resumes and wading through the job ads on Monster and Dice (which rarely if ever result in a reply let alone an interview).

As always, the advice on DU beats anything elsewhere. That's why I posted my question here and not the technology/career forums on other less superior websites! :-)

[elehhhhna]

11. You got hired while you're pregnant!?!

You must be one hell of a talented candidate, mreilly! That just doesn't happen.

[mreilly]

17. Well, my wife is pregnant

... which makes the whole job-hopping thing scary, but sometimes you just have to rely on the fact things turn out OK most of the time.

I only mentioned the new baby to my new company after they decided to offer me the job. Didn't want them thinking I'd said "My wife and I are expecting our third this October" to try to sway them to offer me the position out of charity or a "Look how many mouths I need to feed" plea.

[elehhhhna]

18. oh. duh. CONGRATS on all your new exciting experiences...

and you considered working from home while there's a newborn coming soon?

Brave man.

[NewJeffCT]

13. I agree - don't take the counter-offer

The company knows you want to leave, so may just look for a way to quietly shove you out the door a few months down the road.

[elehhhhna]

19. they'd always prefer you leave on THEIR schedule...

not yours!

[styersc]

8. I worked out of my house in SOuth Carolina for a small company

in Atlanta for about 5 years when a year ago I got an offer from a big company here in SC for much more money.

I gave my notice and left on good terms and went to the large company for far more money and better benefits then I had ever made. I hated the new job.

After being miserable for 8 months, I was chatting on the phone with a former colleague and mentioned how miserable I was and she proceeded to beg me to come back. I quit the new job and went back to the old job for more money then I had made before, but less then I made at the new place.

Now I'm back with the old gig, working out of my basement and am pretty much my own boss.

My advice- leave the old job under very good terms. When you are gone they will realize how much they relied upon you and if you decide you don't like the new gig, you will be welcomed back to the old, probably with a chance to work from home.

[Joe Fields]

9. If you really want my advice...

Your old employer has already pushed you to the point of being so dissatisfied, you have sought other employment. You don't like the pace of the job, and you were set psychologically on leaving, UNTIL your current employer made a counter offer. If you accept the counter offer and stay, you realize that you may end up having to go to the office much more than they let on.

This new company, on the other hand, offers you a fresh start, a chance to do something different, and an eagerness to have you as part of their team.

Do you want more money or a little more peace of mind?

[billyskank]

12. New job

Your old workplace won't get any better.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

14. ask for a 15% raise

if they really want to keep you...

[grace0418]

15. Definitely take the new job. I work for a company that promises lots of

things to get what they want, but the reality ends up being very different. Our workload was getting insane and the comp (design mock-up) requests were getting more elaborate by the day. When the CEO decided to lay off a bunch of people in my department, the rest of us were promised that comp request would be less frequent and more simple. A few months later the comp requests are just as bad if not worse, but we have seven fewer people to accomplish them.

My guess is that the "working from home" situation would slowly go from 4-5 days a week to 0 days a week in pretty short order.

You may end up not liking the new job, but you should at least try it out.

[Rambis]

16. New job

You made a commitment to the person that has been helping you get hired. Besides, the original firm will welch on the coming into the office deal after the first two weeks. I have seen the come in "as needed" and it is not pretty. It takes one aresehole who thinks you need to come in and put paper in the copier etc etc.
I had a friend who was forced to move by a new superior then the superior got canned a month later. Meanwhile, the dream house they built sold and they were in the middle of building the next house they had to finish and sell. Now they are back where they never wanted to move from in the first place building another house. It took one guy that was there for a month to fuck up his entire home life for three years basically.
Personally I could not work from home because I have no discipline but that is just me.

[ThomCat]

20. I'd take the new job, because

your current company is not going to forget that you went out looking for a new job. They might not want to replace you now, but it's almost guaranteed that they'll make you less essential and ease you out now that they know you're willing to leave. That golden offer is not very secure.

I'd suggest taking the new job your friend helped you get. It's much more secure.

[LSK]

21. new job

[MANative]

22. Take the new job...

I've worked in HR and Recruiting for more than 20 years, and currently run a business that trains people in staffing and recruiting. I can tell you that VERY often, a company will make a counter-offer because they can't afford to lose you right this minute. As soon as you agree to stay, they start looking for a replacement, and can now take their sweet time to find someone cheaper, or more malleable, or whatever their current hot-button is. Within 3 months, they'll tell you that they no longer need your services. The other typical scenario is this: The extra money looks great, but there are usually other reasons that people go looking for another job. Those factors do not typically change very much when you accept a counter-offer with more money. (The #1 reason people leave jobs is the boss, and money is like #5 or 6, depending on which study you believe.) You get frustrated that nothing has really changed, but feel stuck because you can't let go of the extra $$. Eventually you get so frustrated that you want to leave anyway, and ahve to start the search process all over again. Most research shows that people who accept counter-offers have left that company within 9 months, whether on their own terms or the company's.

Take the new job! Have periodic parties to stay in touch with the former coworkers you really liked. :)

[mreilly]

25. "they can't afford to lose you right this minute"

... that's exactly the situation; when you work in IT and have been there a while you know how all the systems operate, what they do, why they do what they do, etc. It is flattering to receive compliments from the bosses and pleas to stay, but I'm not a narcissist. They want a warm body who knows the networking environment so as to minimize any disruption of service or having to hire/train a replacement.

Because I have worked closely with a lot of the VPs, President, CEO, etc. I don't think they would be so blunt as to immediately look for a replacement for me then lay me off when convenient for them. But what might happen would be that I'd be pressured to quit once they had a good candidate in mind. The workload would increase unbearably, or I'd receive little to no raise, or the requests to come in while I was supposed to be "working from home" might be more frequent.

Come to think of it, they have been talking about hiring another IT candidate to address the growing needs of the company (I assumed it was one of those "someday we'll get around to it..." type of claims. However, maybe my accepting the counter-offer would put this on the front burner. Perhaps they'd look for a person with similar experience to mine, get that person up to speed on what I do, then ease me toward the door. When you think about it, it is to their short-term advantage to agree for me to work from home more often so the commute is not so painful and I'll stick around, but it's to their long-term disadvantage since given the choice of course any company would prefer an IT guy who is present 5 days a week rather than in the office sporadically.

Tricky business maneuverings like this are why I went into IT - I like dealing with cold hard facts and no hidden agendas, ulterior motives, or other possibly duplicitous activities. Although we do always have Microsoft for that stuff!

[Connonym]

23. That's got to feel good though, right?

I have to go with the flow here and say that it sounds like the new job is the right thing. It seems that you're really psyched for it. Working at home has its benefits but working at home knowing that they can yank you into the office whenever they please would really take away from that. You'd have the bad shit of working at home without necessarily having the good stuff. Best of luck with the job and with Baby #3!

[LibraLiz1973]

24. Definitely take the new job

If the bosses at your old job really care, they will understand why you are going.
It may be inconvenien to them, but, it is the best thing for YOUR family.


Good luck at the new place!!

[mykpart]

26. Since the commute was not your only reason for leaving

(too fast paced), take the new job. Besides, you don't want to work somewhere where you have to quit to get anywhere.