Well, it's a little sketchy. It's never clear from an employer's point of view why someone is looking around. People look around for other jobs for lots of reas

Well, it's a little sketchy. It's never clear from an employer's point of view why someone is looking around. People look around for other jobs for lots of reasons. If they're not satisfied at work due to reasons other than money such as lack of autonomy or boring projects and their employer offers them more money then they'll stick around without solving the underlying issue. It's very hard for an employer to distinguish which case an employee falls under. Does this person just want more money or do they hate their job? When the time for promotions or layoffs rolls around, this kind of stuff is a factor. Maybe not on purpose, heck, maybe not at google. But for two identical candidates - except for this one trick for a raise, people are going to tend to pick the loyal one for promotion. Loyalty doesn't count for anything in the modern workforce except it does. It factors into people's decision making in spite of their best intentions, because it's part of biological wiring. It's unfortunate that poeple can't get raises without leverage. Using leverage brings all these other factors in to play.