How to reject a job offer after accepting it

Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the business and time management books TimePeace: Making peace with time – The Book of Answers:  105 Career Critical Situations – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management, and work-life balance strategies.   

This question comes from a busy professional.

I accepted a job offer, but then received a much better one two weeks later. What is the right thing to do? 2nd company offered me 20% better pay with OT, closer to home, and better benefits.

Congratulations on your great job offers!  You did an amazing job attracting both companies.   Please take time to be proud and celebrate!

Now for the hard part.  Please remember that these companies are making business decisions; decisions that are the best for their company.  YOU need to do the same.  Professionals will always understand and respect logical, business decisions. 

Having said the above, you are perfectly free to rescind your acceptance, and take up the second offer.

Even if you have actually begun the first job, you can resign and go to the other.  The important thing is “how you do it”.

What not to do

I personally experienced a “what not to do”.  One person, after accepting our offer, just did not showing up for her first day of work.  Her new department went to the trouble of decorating her desk and bringing in a welcome breakfast.   She was supposed to arrive at 8:30am.  Her department manager finally called her at 11:30am to find out where she was.  It was at that moment that she told him that she had actually accepted another position.   I do not recommend handling it that way.

What to do

Be professional at all times.  This means being transparent and considerate. 

  • While you are interviewing, be open about the other outstanding offers or interviews that are ongoing. 
    • This allows you to better negotiate when the time comes
    • This allows you to get additional time to consider their offer against others
    • This allows you to pressure them for their decision as well
  • Let them know you are considering another position early
    • This allows them to counter offer – which may be even better for you
    • If they don’t want to counter offer, then it will be their decision to let you go to the other firm
  • Promise to stay in touch (and they stay in touch)
    • Stay in contact with some of the employees that you met during the interview process
    • Stay in touch through their website, LinkedIn and Business Facebook pages.  If some projects are interesting to you, offer to do some side projects for them in the interim

Stay in Contact

It’s important to continue your business relationship and networking with all the groups you have interviewed.  This is because it is very hard to determine if the 2nd position is actually better until you are actually working there.

For example, the second company may have to pay 20% more, because it is such a more difficult place to work. Or it may be desperately trying to strengthen itself, against a competitor who is driving it out of business. Or all the other employees have fled to work for the competitor.

In the end, you can only make a decision based on the information you have available at the time.  With additional time, you can better tell if you made the right decision.  Staying in touch and continuing building your business network will provide you continuous options and opportunities.

Don’t feel obligated

Lastly, don’t feel obligated to stay where you don’t want to be.  Realize that both companies had a list of other people they were interviewing and considering.  While they may be temporarily disappointed, neither company will be devastated with your change in decision.  And there will be very few people that will not recognize your better situation in the other job.

Hopefully you’ll find the suggestions above beneficial.

If you need some help with any of these steps, please setup a one-on-one consult session.

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