Core employee wants to leave the company as he was pursuing the COO position, but they said he wasn’t qualified. Now, other employees want to leave as well: ‘I even offered him another raise, but he told me his decision is firm and non-negotiable.’ – FAIL Blog

Maybe just give the employee what he is working for if he deserves it

If you have a core employee, you do everything in your power to make them stay at the company for as long as you can. Core employees get perks that most wouldn’t. They can arrive 5 minutes late, take too many coffee breaks, and get chatty. All because when they work, they do a better job than any other employee and in less time. So when you have the luck of encountering someone like that, as a manager, your main priority is for them to choose to stay at the company for as long as possible. They bring great value, and they are the best at their job. Yes, they can be a little lazy sometimes, but what they bring to the table is so important that you have to look past it.

If they one day decide that they want to leave, you do ANYTHING to convince them otherwise. The one in the story below thought that a raise would be enough. Well no. This employee wanted to be COO. If he had offered that, we wouldn’t be in this situation. After all, what this employee is looking for is career growth and nothing else. There is no reason for him to stay after all, if what he’s looking for, he’s not going to get. That is how building your career works: if you can’t grow anymore in some place, you need to change your direction, change companies, look for somewhere where you are appreciated, and you can gain the experience that you need and want.  

Finally, risking this employee is not only the loss of a great employee, but it is also more work for the others. Someone who brings so much to the table and does so much more than anyone else leaves a space that is bigger than you would imagine. His resignation doesn’t only mean that HE is not going to be there anymore. It also means more work accumulating because he cared for more than what he had to. It also means that the excellent work will not continue to be excellent, and most likely will be deemed just fine. As a place that does sales, you need customers to be very happy with the work employees perform in their job, not just alright. So maybe, in this case, they should give this employee what he deserves, even if he isn’t exactly qualified.