Dear Readers: When you land that coveted job offer, you resign and, lo and behold, your boss counter offers! They don’t want you to leave, so the door is left ajar as they offer a competitive salary to stay. Should you accept it?

The decision of whether or not to accept the counteroffer is entirely yours, as only you know your career goals, financial situation and more, but we’ll focus on reasons for the counteroffer and how to handle accepting or turning it down.

First, especially if the company was tight with salary increases and salary is one of the top reasons why you started looking for a new job, let’s pause to wonder why the company didn’t pay you what you’re worth. Why are they only providing this salary now that you have one foot out the door?

The new number may be very enticing and, yes, it’s negotiable, but revisit the reasons why you want to leave. If you stay and get that higher salary, will you be ready to leave in a few weeks or months anyway? The decision usually needs to be made quickly so you can get back to the external employer with a decision and circle back to your current employer as well without burning any bridges.

John Madigan, president and CEO of Executive Talent Services, agrees. “I have always felt that it is disingenuous to accept a counteroffer in situations where the resigning employee is leaving because they feel underpaid, unappreciated or otherwise want to leave a bad situation. Under those conditions, they should not accept a counteroffer. I think they can thank the current employer for the offer but indicate that they had an outside offer that was too good to ignore.”

He added that even if you do accept the counteroffer, it can reflect badly on you like you can “be bought, which can change the mindset of the current employer (now you are a commodity).”

Roy Cohen, career coach and author of “The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide: Success Secrets of a Career Coach,” said you should always anticipate a counteroffer unless you’re on a performance improvement plan or your company is on shaky ground.

Cohen said, “For companies, the cost to train a new employee and the time it takes to get up to speed are likely far more than giving you a bump in compensation. It’s also inconvenient and a burden. So yes, a counteroffer is a sure thing if a company cannot afford to lose you.”

You have leverage to negotiate; expect the counteroffer to be close or to match the new offer. “You can and should negotiate base salary and bonus, but be careful not to be too greedy,” said Cohen.

If you do accept the counteroffer to stay at your current employer, reach out to the hiring manager at the external company with gratitude. Cohen said, “Also be sure to send the hiring manager a thoughtful and sincere note that emphasizes why you ultimately decided not to accept their generous offer or, and this is trickier, why you decided to withdraw from an offer that you may already have accepted.”

If you turn down your current employer, express gratitude for their support and interest in retaining your employment. The goal is to leave on good terms./Tribune News Service