Counteroffers Can Be Deadly

Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.

  Career Development  

Back in the wild and crazy fast buck dot-com days of the late 1990s, counteroffers were practically everyday occurrences. Job hopping was rampant, company loyalty was considered old-fashioned and very boring, and cash--lots of it--was totally cool.

Now that the economy has picked up speed and many technology industries are aggressively hiring, employers will once again be using the counteroffer to keep disenchanted employees from taking better job offers.

Typically, candidate availability (more jobs than qualified people to fill them) and counteroffers go hand in hand.

What would you do if you received a very sweet job offer and your CEO counters with an even sweeter offer? Do you grab it or seriously consider the potential nasty consequences? Read on and find out about the dangers of accepting a counteroffer.

A counteroffer is defined as a "new offer that varies the terms of the original offer and rejects the terms of that original offer," according to legal glossary website, legal-definitions.com.

Here's how a counteroffer usually works. Imagine having a relatively secure job earning decent dollars as a project manager at hot startup Didley Software. You've been there 11 months, which was considered a long time during the dot-com renaissance years. But you stuck around because you liked your job and enjoyed a …

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