Usually not: a counter-offer almost always fixes the money and rarely the reason you started looking, and in my experience the person who accepts one almost always leaves within a year.
Should I take a counter-offer?
What the offer to stay is really telling you.
Last updated 1 November 2026. By Scott Lechley, founder of Lechley Associates. Quantity Surveyor from 1990 to 2002, construction executive search since 2002.
The numbers
- Who leaves anyway: the research on this is consistent across industries. Around 70 to 80 per cent of people who accept a counter-offer leave within 12 months, and many within six.
- How often it happens: at director level in UK construction, a counter-offer is now the norm when someone resigns.
- When staying makes sense: three narrow cases. A fundamentally different role, a specific and fixable reason addressed with a credible plan and dates, or real red flags in the outside offer.
In more detail
Ask why it took a resignation for your employer to recognise your value. If you were worth the counter-offer, you were worth it three months ago. The offer is a defensive reaction to losing you, not a reward for your performance, and once the threat has gone the priority goes with it. Your employer now knows you were willing to leave, and you know they only valued you when they were about to lose you.
The reason most senior people start looking is rarely the money. It is the pace of progression, a line manager, the direction of the business or a role that has plateaued, and a counter-offer addresses the money because it is the one lever that moves by Friday. Before you attend a single interview, write down in one sentence why you are looking. When the counter-offer arrives, read that sentence back and ask whether anything on the table fixes it.
Questions to ask yourself
- Why did it take a resignation for my employer to make this offer?
- Does the counter-offer address the reason I started looking, or just the salary?
- If I stay, what specifically changes about my day-to-day work in the next three months?
- How will I feel about this employer in 18 months if the promises do not materialise?
- What am I walking away from if I accept?
Read more
- The counter-offer trap: the full essay, with the cases where staying is right.
- A counter-offer is the cheapest way to keep you, not the best reason to stay: why the money arrives the week you resign.
- Senior career advice: a confidential view for a director weighing a move.
- Director package checker: set the offer against the bands before you decide.
Common questions
How common are counter-offers at director level?
In UK construction a counter-offer is now the norm when a director resigns, which is why an offer has to be built to survive one.
When is it right to stay?
When your employer is offering a fundamentally different role rather than more money for the same job; when the reason you were leaving was specific and fixable and the offer addresses it with a credible plan and dates; or when the outside offer has real red flags you have spotted since.
Will accepting a counter-offer affect my reputation?
It can. You damage a relationship with the employer you turned down and the recruiter who introduced you, both of which matter in a small industry, and the next time your name comes up there will be a question about whether you are serious.
Talk it through
If you are in the middle of a counter-offer now, or can see one coming, I will give you a straight view. No hard sell, no obligation.
