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.]

People need to realize this. I worked for a company that did it time after time. Everybody who actually took a counter was out on the street within three months, meaning the company was able to make a much smoother transition at the cost of just a few extra months at the higher salary.

The guy who took the counter was then in a position of finding a job when he didn't have one, which is a recipe for getting lowballed by potential employers.

When they offered me a counter I was tempted to take it on the condition they give me a huge cash bonus and a twelve month contract with steep cancellation penalties. Instead I just said no. Who wants to work at a place like that?

This generally only goes for quitting though. Simply asking for more money is completely different. the article focuses on employees quitting for leverage. If you work hard day to day and plant the seed that you're unhappy with your compensation (and continue to grind) a good manager should step in and reward you or guide you toward a promotion. The benefit just takes a lot longer than the "pay up or I quit" approach.

How does one decide that an outsider is "loyal"? More often than not the company will be "poaching" the outsider from another company. Doesn't that suggest that outsider is not loyal? And why the hell any company that does not offer life employment would expect loyalty from employees?

Btw, I think I fat-fingered and downvoted you, so I'll upvote another one of your comments (sorry)

If you're that bitter then leave. More money doesn't fix a bad working situation. If you are vastly underpaid then likely the company is stingy in other places too.

I think there's an assumption that if an employee comes to you with a better offer looking for you to counter then its likely they would like to stay. If you had no desire to remain then you can just take the new job and move on.

Even if the employee was unhappy enough to go looking, changing jobs often comes with high transaction costs that most people won't want to deal with without a good reason.

Also, in the tech sector and some other areas, its not uncommon to wind up with an offer when you haven't put in the work to find another job. If you are well connected in your field, you may get offers, or at least invitations to interview, without actively looking for them.