My thoughts:
I've written an awful lot in the last ten years about employment situations over in another Forum specializing in this topic
Career and Occupation Discussions for a total of 514 posts (Search: Threads Started By: Wes Bucey ; Forum: Career and Occupation Discussions and child forums Showing results 1 to 35 of 514)
[this only counts comments in threads I started]
Jim Wynne capsulizes the gist of them when he says
I've always considered giving notice to be an act of bridge burning. I've never done it without being absolutely sure that I was going to leave.
As far as the company is concerned, they should do whatever they think they need to do. If they really want to keep someone, I see no problem with making an offer. Anyone else who does it should do so with the idea that every situation is unique, and just because one person gave notice and was asked to stay on doesn't mean the same thing will happen when someone else does.
Now, perhaps the OP in this thread misinterpreted a "conversation which included talk about quitting which was really a pay or promotion request negotiation tactic on the part of the employee" as "giving notice." As Jim writes, "giving notice" is the act of finality, preferably written, as a prelude to making arrangements to get final paychecks, 401K, and insurance matters in motion prior to walking out the door for the last time.
Once an employee has given formal, written notice, he should be prepared to be ushered to the door unless it is meant as a "retirement," in which case, the employee is leaving on good terms and may, as part of notice, indicate a willingness to bring everyone up to speed before he leaves.
An employee's motives for resigning can fall in a range from
- take this job and shove it
to
- My family business needs me and I'm sorry to have to leave.
and everywhere in between and thus may have different reasons for accepting or refusing a request to remain for a period.
An employee who has accepted employment elsewhere and is resigning to take that job creates an ethical dilemma if he then subsequently changes his mind. Employers who learn an employee is leaving to work somewhere else may rightly count that employee as "dead man walking" and actively begin to hunt for his replacement if they are able to persuade him to remain past the two week notice.
In the instance OP gives, I'd really like to hear the Paul Harvey version of "the rest of the story."