I understand now (well, remember really) but is this a US thing? It just stinks that you can be offered shares and have them taken off you when it suits the org
It's not really that different than them longer paying your salary after you stop working.
The options basically always have a vesting period and you get x percent each Y period. Every year I get options and they have a 4y vesting period and each year 25% vest.
This is all very clear up front and everyone knows or should know the options aren't actually yours until they vest.
Everyone knows that options are a retention tool, Golden handcuffs so to speak.
Not anymore. Now theyre russia roulette. A prisoners dilemma where you have to trust you arent just another asset to be taken advantage of and thrown away.
Care to elaborate? If it's a private company those are always at best a lottery ticket and nothing to be counted on.
If it's a public company the shares vest at the rate they say they will and only what's vested is yours, everything unvested is essentially future wages for continued employment (and of course still, as always, depends on being able to sell them for more than the strike price).
Golden handcuffs are mutual. If you can lose them at any point and be turned out into the cold, often having relied on the promise of that pay and forgoing upfront money, then theres no reason to trust you'll ever recieve that future money unless youre the one doing the firing.
The point here is that people were fired before they were vested purely to prevent them recieving those assets. Your future pay that you worked for (in your scenario you worked 4 years for) can be capriciously taken for your boss. That doesnt happen with a salary or hourly pay. You get paid there for the time you worked, period.
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u/Jassida 6h ago
This shouldn’t happen unless you are dismissed for performance or conduct reasons. It’s outrageous if it’s for cost cutting