[joezydeco]

First hand, it happens. Not every CEO is a wonderful caring person, and some can get very vindictive when it appears that an underling is threatening the operation of their company by (in their view) holding the job hostage for more cash.

[chc]

More charitably, by talking about offers from other companies, you are indicating to them that your continued employment is in question. Businessmen like predictability. So from that perspective, when they see you have one foot out the door, it makes sense to alleviate the uncertainty by getting the other foot out the door and bringing in somebody who seems more predictable.

[rhizome]

I'm not saying any of that stuff, I'm just asking about your first sentence, which is like every instance where someone makes the bald assertion that it happens, but I've never heard of it happening. So far I'm thinking it's just a myth.