I told my boss I'd been offered a job somewhere else with a better position and pay and he presented a reasonable counter-offer in under two hours which included an on-paper promotion and matching payrise.

I stayed. 🙃

The largest raise I've had to date as an employee was achieved the same way. High five ✋

@kwilliams @duckWit
Were they bluffs? 🙂

Don't take it, you'll be happy for 6 month and then want to leave again. It's not really the salary that wants you to leave 😛

@Root I don't bluff when it comes to money. :)

@vandroid64 I enjoy where I work, but sometimes the money offered elsewhere is too big a raise to ignore.

Oh I meant it the other way around. Statistically, employees who take counter-offers from their current employer usually leaves anyways after a while.

Ah so that's how its done

That's great!
I love to hear such stories of skilled employees being too good to lose.
It also makes me feel bad that the only way to get a raise with such employers is to have a offer in hand. It isn't a culture of rewarding good work.
'I don't pay you for your skill, nor the value you create for me, I pay the minimum I have to pay.'
Perhaps contract jobs are better in that regard.

I don't know if you had asked for a raise or promotion before getting the offer. If not, then I can ignore the sad feeling because it doesn't apply here. If yes, let your boss know that a he just lost points with an obscure far away person.

@Root in my case it was a legit offer. I'm so, so glad my company countered because in hindsight I think taking that job would have been a colossal mistake.

Nice! Well we're all slaves of capitalism so money does matter ¯\(◉‿◉)/¯

So basically, you had a job that could have paid more for the X amount of time you already work there, which only recognized you deserved more when you presented proof you actually deserve more, which they could have obtained on their own with a little market research (googlin')

Seems they milked you, and will milk you more