@sf02 Not even just co-worker, but also "good friend"

To be honest, if he came with "Guys I got another job proposal but I would like to stay here, can we arrange something so I can stay here?" Would immediatly got him fired because that happened with another employee on the same department, totally understandable if you're underpayed, but that experience left the company on the auto-behaviour of "If people even consider leaving, let them go", and co-worker does not wants to leave and he also knew about this auto-behaviour, so we're just trying to do our best, it's a really hard topic to be honest.

@Napal If the company fires people who think about leaving, it seems the most obvious thing you can do to protect your guys is to ensure the company doesn't know they are thinking about leaving. It's better to be fired with a job offer in your hand, then without even having an interview. But it's a bit pointless to legislate the past.

cant cry for spilled milk

He asked you to talk to the directors about his interviewing elsewhere? You should have advised against that. Now, you should just promise to give him a good reference and wish him luck.

@joeqwerty quite right - the directors have made very clear the lack of commitment they're showing to their employee and they should expect no more in return.

This is a very interesting story because it seems like everyone involved (worker, boss, and management) are all behaving precisely in reverse from how they ought to.

"We can't +100% his salary, but eventually that would be possible." - this phrase could be the key for him to want to stay or not, but I don't understand exactly what it means. Can you increase his salary or not? "he's only six months left to complete a year and that'll get him a greater salary" - so he is only employed for six months, that could be a little early to start comparing salaries. Does he know his salary will increase after a year? Can you make him be patient and evaluate things before starting to job-hop?

Wow, so he has been there 6 months, got trained in company time and is already complaining about money and looking around? Am I missing something here?

Related: Do I mention a competing offer when negotiating a raise?

"We don't want people who are not committed to the company and we should fire him right now" - Is it just me, or does this sound absolutely toxic?

@Vilx- What if, in return, everybody who isn't guaranteed a secure job for life, collectively resigned? Just to be consistent.

@Vilx- It's toxic because it doesn't make any business sense. It's actually vindictive rather than proactive. In this instance, even if the company needed someone committed to the cause, the logical thing would be to wait until a replacement was organised. The fact they were thinking about firing right away suggests it's an emotional reaction, rather than a logical one based on the best interests of the business. All I can say is good luck to the OP.

@gerrit - I don't understand what you're trying to say.

@DonQuiKong, the OP makes it clear that the employee was only being paid according to his circumstances at the start of the job, not according to his potential, and certainly not according to his current market value. And where just 6 months' of job experience is capable of doubling or tripling a worker's market value, the problem usually is that employers are habitually under-investing in the reproduction of skills and taking the proceeds of such under-investment as profit, so it ill-behoves to complain about those who do take what little investment is made and then use it to maximum effect.

@Vilx- The employer is reasoning that if employees do not promise to stay until retirement, they're disloyal and will be fired. By extension, an employer that doesn't guarantee a job until retirement should be considered disloyal to employees. Employees could illustrate how ridiculous the employer expectation of one-directional loyalty is, by threatening to leave unless the employer promises to be as loyal to employees as it expects employees to be to the employer.

Can I just throw it out there that a year ago, you asked a question about the proper process for leaving: workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/159998/… In the answer YOU accepted, it was reiterated (several times!) that letting your employer know you're leaving should only happen after you have a written offer. So basically, you threw your "friend" under the bus, despite knowing better.