This is not true (the original post, not yours). Typically, when an employee submits their resignation letter, they are out of the company, literally or figuratively.

If an employer makes you a counter-offer, never, ever take it. First, you already have a reason that you wanted to quit. It's usually not _just_ for the money, but probably for other reasons (e.g. intellectual boredom). If you are unhappy with your job, more money will just not help. As someone wise told me once, "Money is not a motivator, but lack of money is a de-motivator."

Secondly, and more importantly, the reason the employer is making a counter-offer is not to entice you to stay, but to buy enough time to find someone else -- a loyal and qualified someone else -- to replace you. Effectively, they are making you the counter-offer so that they don't have to spend the time and money looking for someone and training them, when they can have you train them for six months (even with a slight-but-temporary increase in your salary). You will be let go as soon as the employer feels that the new employee has been trained adequately.

The moral is, once you submit the resignation letter, stick to your guns, and don't be fooled by counter-offers.

[Edit: forgot to add, another reason they prefer you to stay is so that you can finish your current project. This minimizes risks to your project, while at the same time training your replacement. The employer would only keep you until the current project is complete, and you will probably not get any new ones.]

He wasn't very happy when I gave notice and rejected his counter-offer.

You may not be easy to replace in the short term, so management, in their desperation to keep the company going, makes you a very sweet offer to get you to stay. But they may think the offer is too expensive in the long term, so they'll start looking for your replacement (or making sure that someone who is already in the company starts picking up the knowledge and skills that made you indispensable). And as soon as your replacement is up to speed, they'll fire you.

And after that, you'll be unlikely to ever get another offer from the company that you were originally going to move to, since you screwed them by backing out after you had already signed their job offer. Word of this could also spread to other companies in the field, making you a less-desirable hire in other places.

So before accepting a counteroffer, you need to be really, really sure that you can trust your manager's (and their managers') sincerity.

It turns out that sometimes, a manager wants to pay an employee more but is blocked by corporate policy or HR. Threatening to leave clears up some of that blockage.

If you are only going to leave because of money, there is little downside to taking a counter-offer. After all, if you were able to get another job now, you should be able to get another one if you happen to be laid off in the future.

I've seen advice like yours many times, but I've never seen any evidence that workers who accept counter-offers are more likely to be laid off or fired.

However, I think that retention agreements and other "bonuses for staying on" can be helpful, even though I think that really what employees want typically are positive changes that would keep them from leaving (like firing a terrible manager or changing a policy) that cost less than retention agreements or counter-offers in many cases.

The best case is never to get in this situation by paying really well, hiring really well, and firing bad employees when necessary.

Is this referring to a counter offer after threatening to quit, a counter offer during the hiring process, or both?

Every manager knows which team members are key to the team's performance. They have to get raises or bonuses to match.

Not to mention that accepting a counter offer is a bad move. The offer might just be to keep you until they find a cheaper replacement. Even if that is not the case you will be perceived as risky - no investment in you, first to fire during tough times.

On top of that it perpetuates the crappy tactic "pay peanuts until they threaten to leave". Nope, counteroffers are for suckers.

I've worked happily at one of the "big" tech companies. Without going too much into details, I ended up getting a really big offer from another one of the big guys (i.e., in the seven figure range over 4 years, obviously with the bulk of it being equity).

I was really torn. I was happy at my job, but that's a large enough of money to make a material difference in the lives of my loved ones. And like a lot of people here, I value the happiness of my family over my own.

I didn't expect my existing employer to do much. So I gave my boss an early heads up this was happening, partly because I thought there was a small chance there would, but mostly so I would leave on good terms.

Again, long story short, they not only matched the offer but came over the top of it. I went home to think about, talked about it with my wife & decided the next day to accept the counteroffer.

That was a few years ago. I've honestly been happy since then. I don't feel this was ever held over my head or held against me. (To the contrary, I was recently promoted.)

When it comes to counteroffers, a lot of it comes down to two things: 1) why you were looking in the first place, and 2) how you handle things with your existing employer.

Regarding (1) - if you were unhappy, money isn't going to fix that. Staying just because of money is dubious at best.

Regarding (2) - the main thing is don't be an asshole. Nobody is going to hold you advocating for your own best interests. Senior execs know the game. They would do the same thing in your place (if they haven't already). If you're an asshole, well, nobody wants to keep an asshole in the first place. But if you're pragmatic & even–keeled, you don't damage the relationships (even if you stay or go).

The worst thing that can happen is you'll be told "no" and you'll have the same raise (or job offer) that you had before.

This isn't folklore. There are roles and companies where counteroffers are pathological; sometimes it's overt and the company is trying to screw you over, and other times it's subtle and emergent and has more to do with the inevitable loss of traction that comes of the company preparing itself more deliberately for your eventual departure.

If I ever end up in this situation again, I'm certainly going to bring this concern up directly and immediately. It's something you can work out if you're negotiating in good faith; it's not the case that there's no such thing as a successful counter.

They don't have a chip on their shoulder. Necessarily. But they have a very rational concern that you, unlike your peers, are particularly likely to bolt. Many forms of compensation, including bonuses, training, and senior positions on teams, are viewed in terms of investments that pay off or lose depending on whether you're retained.

I wasted a year and a half or so of my career by accepting a counteroffer (I didn't really want to leave that badly) and getting marginalized.

That doesn't mean every counteroffer is bad, but I would be up-front and overt about the concern that the "counteroffer" you've been offered is really more of an "option" on you, so that you'll leave on the company's terms and not your own.

Accepting a counter-offer is almost always a bad idea; no matter how much money is on the table. After accepting a counter-offer you are bought and paid-for, you decided to stay for the cash and, unfortunately, your loyalty to the company will be questioned forever after.