New job offer… and a counter-offer!

I’ve been rather unhappy with a number of things at my current job for a while now:  too much stress, overworked, underpaid… the usual.  I was lucky enough to receive an offer from another company though that would not only increase my pay considerably, but also allow me obtain a “Director level” position at this new company with all the benefits I’ve ever wanted (four weeks paid vacation to start, a nice big office, reporting directly to the CFO, etc.).  The downside to this great new job is I’d have to pick up my life and move to Akron, OH, which is roughly four hours northeast of Cincinnati where I currently live!  Think of the work that entails:  paying off my second mortgage, selling my crappy little house in Milford, having to leave all my friends and make new ones, my wife would have to leave her friends and her job that she loves, and so on.  After some careful thought and monetary consideration though, my wife and I decided that I should take the job and we’d move within the next year (mainly because the new company was only going to pay for my apartment in Akron for the first year… yet another nice perk).  So with the decision made and the offer letter in hand, I came into work on Tuesday and put in my one month notice (I knew how hard it was going to be for them to replace me so I wanted to give them extra time).

Within 30 mins of my giving notice to my boss, he came to me and said they were putting together a counter-offer to keep me.  I was shocked!  I knew they really needed me and had come to rely heavily on my “I’ll get it done somehow…” work ethic but I never thought they’d actually offer me something to stay.  They’re counter-offer is basically the same money I’d be making at the new job and a co-op to help me with the workload since I never have time to do everything they want.  They also said something about tossing in an office if they could free one up but honestly I don’t care one way or other on that front.  The main thing I like about this offer is I don’t have to move which would not only save me a ton of money and time but keep my wife (and her family… they didn’t take the moving news well, hehe) happy.  Granted I’d still be working in an environment where I’m always expected to over perform but at least I’ll have some help now to make things easier.

So now I sit here and wait for them to give me the official counter-offer in writing so I can review it.  If it all sounds good, I’ll take it and break the bad news to the folks in Akron expecting me to arrive on January 15.  If even the slightest thing sounds shady in the counter-offer though, I’ll tell them to shove it and send in the offer letter to the new company.  All in all, I feel pretty good about this whole process.  It just goes to prove what I’ve always known about myself:  I’m damn good at what I do and people recognize that.