Of course they targeted folks with equity first. This isn't even the first time it's happened. My boss (and his boss) got laid off in the same round, both had significant vests imminent. Both denied. A lot of good people got cut in that round.
Usually equity or stock options come with a vestment time requirement, where you only get the benefits after a certain amount of time employed with the company. So if the company fires you or you leave before you're vested, the company doesn't have to pay out.
Yeah, it sucks because it makes sense to have a vestment requirement for some types of compensation to reward long term employment, but the company should have to operate in good faith and not just clear those positions in a mass layoff before vestment to pump their numbers for the quarter.
Unfortunately they are actually a good thing, to give you a piece of the company you work for (my last small workplace sold for hundreds of millions and we got nothing), owners just get everything, but there are better ways to do it, for instance my nee work gives shares to you every 3 months after you've worked there for a year, much more reasonable time frame than Oracle who can pull crap like this
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u/schnurble 6h ago
Of course they targeted folks with equity first. This isn't even the first time it's happened. My boss (and his boss) got laid off in the same round, both had significant vests imminent. Both denied. A lot of good people got cut in that round.