Recruiting.com

Career Journal has an interesting article based on a question from a reader who was offered an equity position in the company in order to stay.

I have had candidates accept counter offers for an equity position before. Not often but it does happen - typically it hasn't worked out well. And it generally was for the same reasons that accepting a counter offer doesn't work: the real motive for leaving hasn't changed.

However according this article accepting a counter offer isn't always wrong:

But employees who receive counteroffers aren't necessarily doomed if they stay,[...] says [Bill Kraus, a vice president of RWD Executive Search in New York]. Lines of communication may be poor at their companies, and they may not have let management know they were unhappy. When these employees say they've received job offers, their managers may make sincere efforts to keep them, he says. "I don't necessarily believe that it's political suicide to stay," he says.

I guess we better hope candidates don't read that right? Happily they temper this advice with some recruiter friendly ammo:

Still, having equity may pay off only if you stay for the long run, and your shares will be most likely to gain value only if your company is sold or has a successful public stock offering, [Joy D'Amore, vice president of human resources and talent acquisition for FOLIOfn Inc cautions]. "Ten percent of something that isn't going anywhere is 10% of nothing," she adds.

Personally I have always believed that there are situations where accepting a counter offer might be the right thing. However I think those are few and far between. Once you check out mentally it is tough to put the brakes on that momentum. Chances are the next call you get from a headhunter you will probably find yourself listening intently.

Read the whole thing here.