My boss wants me to stay

Dear Caroline,

I have an offer letter for a new job and now my boss has asked me to share it with him. He says that whatever I have been offered, he will ensure that he gives me the same package. What should I do?

Monica

Dear Monica,

This is a delicate situation that needs to be managed quite carefully.  By the time your supervisor is asking to see your offer letter, there is an assumption that he wants to confirm that you have an offer, and secondly he wants to see how he can retain you at your current place of work. In the space of people management/HR, by the time an employee has gone out to look for an alternative role, they are ready to move and there are a number of reasons why they want to move. The fact that you have received an offer letter, you have made your decision and this is validated by the time you have invested going through the process. In doing so, you have also had the time to reflect on the cost benefit of why you are leaving.  If your supervisor is asking to see your letter and you are confident that where you are moving to is what you want, then show him the letter. Showing him the letter confirms that you have the offer so it speaks to you, informing him of the truth.

Once you have shown him the letter, the challenge is what happens next. It is not clear to me what “the offer” means. Will the letter communicate your complete reward and remuneration package, including benefits or will it only show the “money”? If your supervisor is able to give you the same package, the question then becomes what aspects of the package are important to you. This will also cause you to re-think why you wanted to leave in the first place. If the issue is only money, chances are you can be offered more money, but more money can only motivate you for a short period. If there are other factors such as growth, learning and development, then the question is:  “Why has this not been provided before and are you sure you are going to be supported now if you had not been supported in the past?”

In my view, once you have started to shift your mind to move to another organisation and grow your career and you have been given the opportunity, then you should take it. Moving onto a new role with a new organisation is a good thing. If you do well and want to come back, you can do so and will be back with new knowledge and experience that benefits the organisation. Goodluck!

Caroline Mboijana, Managing Director, The Leadership Team (U)  [email protected]