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Here is my situation. I’m currently an hourly employee with no benefits hired with company A. It was supposed to be a temporary job ending in month 3 but I’m now 6 months in with my hourly rate because my boss raves about how great of an employee I’ve been and wants to keep me around in case something opened up. Everything with company A was great short of not being salaried with benefits.

I recently had begun looking for permanent employment and applied for company B who made an offer. The thing is when I started my career, I turned down company B before any offers were made due to personal circumstances. The day after I got the second offer to company B, my company A finally offers me a full time position with benefits in the ideal situation I had been looking for this whole time. That’s not to say the offer with B was bad or the situation would have been bad either.

How do I go about letting down company B? Am I even making the right choice going on about company A?

Kess000
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    "The day after I got the second offer to company B, my company A finally offers me a full time position with benefits in the ideal situation" The timing is suspicious. Did they know about your other offer? In any case, be sure to sign the contract before you reject company B. Or maybe tell company B that you have a second offer, to see if they'd like to up their offer. You don't need to tell them who it's from. – Stephan Branczyk May 26 '21 at 03:53
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    As @StephanBranczyk implies, there are no concidences. So it's unlikely this is the whole story. – Fattie May 26 '21 at 14:37
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    I'm going to have to agree with a couple others here. The timing of all this is......well......the word "suspicious" doesn't even begin to describe it. As others have stated, get some paperwork signed before you tell anyone "No" about anything. The timing has me so suspicious, I'd even go so far as to request a personal copy of the signed paperwork before telling the other party "No" – Langecrew May 26 '21 at 14:58

4 Answers4

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"No." is a complete sentence.

In this case, you can say "No thanks." And then that's also a complete sentence.

Don't overthink turning down offers. It won't be the company's first, and won't be the last. They say "No" to tons of candidates, and should readily accept a "No" from one. If they don't, drop them even faster and go with Company A.

The biggest advantage is, barring something significant and, most importantly, guaranteed, going with a new company is always a gamble. At interviews, people are expected to be at their best. You haven't disappointed anyone at the new company yet, and you shouldn't have any enemies there. You simply know almost nothing on how the company will act when things go south.

If you have a strong working relationship with Company A, it is a huge factor in job security and you really should think hard about switching.

Nelson
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    "guaranteed, going with a new company is always a gamble" — that looks useful! Bookmarked! – Levente May 26 '21 at 04:40
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    +1 for guaranteed. This is part of the reason why switching jobs should only be done for substantial benefits: there's a risk component involved -- you may not like the company/colleague/work, they may not like you, ... -- and this risk is only worth taking if the potential reward is worth it. – Matthieu M. May 26 '21 at 14:26
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To clarify on some things, I have the utmost respect for my boss. Without him, I wouldn’t have been able to complete our big projects and be in a position for an offer.

The timing is suspicious. My boss made the offer before I could bring the second offer to his attention. I’m not surprised considering my industry is a small world.

I decided to go with company A on the basis that I have an amazing team, comfortable work environment, and finally a written contract. Needless to say, when I contacted company B, they were not pleased and in no uncertain terms told me never to apply for them again. Anyone could have predicted that result, but I’m happy with company A and looking forward to the long term.

Kess000
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    Thanks for this update! – Levente May 26 '21 at 19:34
  • Would you feel more comfortable if I deleted my answer (and along with it, this very comment here too)? I would gladly do, not an issue for me. – Levente May 26 '21 at 20:07
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    Yes, you should be able to edit your question and maybe include this information at the bottom as an update. – Jason Goemaat May 27 '21 at 03:32
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    If that was their reaction, you may have dodged a bullet. Unless they had to go the extra-mile to interview you, any professional reaction would imply wishing you good luck with your new position and move on to the next best candidate. Good riddance! – Laurent S. May 27 '21 at 12:02
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You wrote:

[...] because my boss raves about how great of an employee I’ve been

This wording is an important indicator about how you truly feel about company A right now.

Should you decide to stay with them, I think you need to consider updating your attitude towards them: I mean internally, for yourself. Finding a shade of more respect towards them (and your collaboration together) could contribute to developing an atmosphere of trust, that in turn could impact your sense of job security and peace of mind in the long run.

However, it may happen that when you take this into consideration — due to background info and details known only to you — you honestly conclude that finding that improved respect / future trust with company A would be challengeful / not likely...

If this case would arise, that could give you a hint about how to move.

On the contrary however, if you find that improving your relationship with company A is feasible, you could allow @Nelson's caution to fall with more weight into consideration:

going with a new company is always a gamble

In the meanwhile you should also not ignore how you feel about the change, what your current (not past) personal preference (wish, desire, even) would be to actually happen.

Levente
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    Regarding the downvotes: 1.) Is aiming for a mutually respectful relationship with an employer out of fashion in this community? 2.) Do I not answer OP's question sufficiently enough? (Must I cover all of it? Is a partial contribution not appreciated?) 3.) Does my answer fail expectations because it wanders away from restricting itself to the immediate technicalities of the involved process? 4.) "Too subjective" answer? — which one is it? – Levente May 26 '21 at 16:38
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    I didn't downvote, but -- you answer seems to hinge on the idea that OP's writing "my boss raves about me" implies they don't respect their boss. It's not obvious to me why you think this. I don't see anything particularly disrespectful about that phrasing. Others may be confused as well and be treating the answer as though it is off topic. – Bear May 26 '21 at 16:41
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    @Bear thank you for the feedback! Awesome! – Levente May 26 '21 at 16:42
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    I didn't DV either, but @Bear's comment sums it up perfectly for me as well, except 'not obvious' doesn't go far enough in my view. I have no idea where you're getting the premise of your answer. – Alex M May 26 '21 at 18:03
  • I think, I have offered — even if apparently almost from thin air — a vector by which OP could query their feelings and impressions about mutual respect and trust in the workplace context. I see mutual respect and trust like soil for a healthyly growing collaboration, bringing about opportunities for growth in one's career. This, in turn, impacts job security and thus, peace of mind. I think these can be important benchmarks when deciding for a workplace. Even if OP now looks at both of these candidates with equal prospect for trust, this angle could still be useful for a future WP SE reader. – Levente May 26 '21 at 20:40
  • The question makes it seem like OP is extremely happy with company A and respects them a lot: "Everything with company A was great short of not being salaried with benefits." Your comments on the quote from OP seem to be in complete opposition to my understanding of the situation from the question. "my company A finally offers me a full time position with benefits in the ideal situation I had been looking for this whole time." It seems like the ideal situation is what they have if they can let down Company B. There doesn't seem to be any problem with Company A, quite the opposite. – Jason Goemaat May 26 '21 at 22:36
  • @JasonGoemaat except for the timing of the offer from company A. See the comments right under the question. The timing has the potential to undermine company A's image of best intent. If they indeed offered a salaried position only because OP got a chance elsewhere (and not because — coincidentally — budget or a HR slot made it possible), it would mean they had exploited OP to the latest possible point. Some may say "it's how companies operate" — maybe not always; I for one feel better when my workplace's position towards me is described by the word "investment" and not by "exploitation". – Levente May 26 '21 at 23:59
  • Thank you guys for the input - I can see all your perspectives and appreciate all of you for helping me through this situation.

    As mentioned above, Company A is great. I loved the environment and the team treated me like family and trained me as if one of there own. My boss is very approachable and available.

    There were many financial factors leading me to initially consider a new offer. Position at company A is limited and was fully staffed. The boss considered moving me to a different town but my family would have difficulty moving.

     – Kess000 May 27 '21 at 05:41
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    For the past week while applying, I had been in talks with my boss too. I never brought up the job offer because he offered employment immediately before posting my two weeks. The timing is suspicious, but given the size of the industry, I’m sure word got to him somehow. It turns out that one of the positions just opened because another coworker resigned.

    As for company B, it was given they’d be upset and I don’t blame them for not considering me for future. But I’m happy where I’m at, and the way they were direct about it wasn’t professional.

     – Kess000 May 27 '21 at 05:45
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Are you sure Company A is to be trusted?

I kind of feel that if it was really trustable, you could have just accepted their offer and dismissed the other without much trouble.

From what you have described so far, Company B is a company we don't know anything about, and that is interested in you enough to send you an offer twice.

Company A is a company that likes to brag how vital are you for them, and then only offers you a contract after 6 months. Right a day after you got an offer from someone else.

o0'.
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    In the meanwhile, see this update. Company B is not on the plate any more, and we already know that they are not someone who are ready to handle being turned down twice nicely. – Levente May 26 '21 at 20:25
  • @Levente I've read it right after writing this. TBH I would also stop bothering with someone who turned down two offers. Although the way they did it isn't super professional, so yeah OP might have made a good choice. – o0'. May 26 '21 at 20:38