Counteroffer Decoder Skill

A counteroffer is the price of your replacement, quoted in a panic. Sometimes it's also a genuine correction — a manager discovering what the market already knew. This skill decodes which one is on the table: what each component (cash now, promises later, title without scope) actually signals, what changes the day you accept, and the questions whose answers separate real commitments from retention theater.

What This Skill Produces

• Component-by-component decode — each element of the offer, what it signals, 🔴🟡🟢 severity
• The day-after analysis — what accepting changes about trust, the promotion queue, and the next layoff list, stated as risks not prophecies
• The verification questions — the asks that convert promises into commitments (in writing, with dates) or expose them
• The decision sheet — stay/go framed against why they resigned in the first place

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The counteroffer's exact contents — verbal or written; note which is which (it matters enormously)
• Why they resigned — money, growth, manager, mission, the new opportunity itself; the counter can only fix some of these
• The new offer they'd be declining — what gets given up if they stay
• History — had they raised these issues before? A raise that took a resignation is data about the next raise

Framework: Severity Scale

• 🔴 Retention theater — high risk — verbal-only promises ("promotion in the next cycle"), title bump with unchanged scope/pay path, "we were already planning to promote you" with no paper trail, urgency pressure ("we need your answer today"), a raise to exactly-match with visible resentment. Each signals buying time to de-risk their transition, not correcting yours.
• 🟡 Ambiguous — verify before weighing — real raise but silent on the original non-money reasons, promises with names but no dates, "things will change" about a manager or culture (ask: what specifically, starting when, visible how?).
• 🟢 Genuine-correction signals — written offer unprompted, addresses the reasons not just comp, concrete scope change with a start date, no urgency pressure, acknowledgment that the situation was mishandled. Rare, and worth taking seriously when the pattern is complete.