Sounds like just another way to avoid paying people. A share that’s never paid out might as well just be Monopoly money.
Comment on Hold my beer - Bungie
harbinger@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
I assume that stock was in the form of restricted stock units that vest over the course of a few years. I’ve seen this kind of thing play out at a few big tech companies over the years and have seen people lose literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in delayed payout.
They offer these as a “loyalty incentive” so the employee wants to stay while of course offering no loyalty in return when they decide to execute layoffs.
dojan@lemmy.world 8 months ago
harbinger@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
One of the worst instances was one year that virtually all “merit increases” were instead replaced with RSUs that vested in a year. When I had to bring that to my team and tell them what they were getting… Well, not a single one of us expected to see that money. Sure enough, layoffs happened and that potential money evaporated before any of us saw a cent. None of us were unprepared or surprised, but obviously still unhappy.
alcoholicorn@hexbear.net 8 months ago
That seems insane to agree to, like it incentivizes the company to fire people the day before their stock is fully vested.
harbinger@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
You’re not wrong
ultratiem@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
Except these were never meant to be paid out. Bungee isn’t about to give away their company to their employees.
It’s a plastic carrot.
harbinger@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Yes, I am certain that was the case. It was the case in my examples too… Every now and then someone gets through and gets a couple units to vest, but the majority are gone and so is that compensation. It’s disgusting.
ultratiem@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
I assume they have to cash in some. Or else the SEC comes sniffing around like “you guys have given out 3 million shares over ten years but no one has ever cashed a singled one out, hmmmmm”. So those are likely the rare few. And a few units tracks because they aren’t giving $2m in stock to some entry level out fresh of ivory league something something.
I always think of those things to the same shit they flash musicians or artists or sports figures. Wave a mansion, Lambo, some ladies but it’s not theirs. Some contractual loop hole that you’re just borrowing it. Fake money.
Steeve@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
RSUs can be a great bonus, but agreed, you definitely shouldn’t consider RSUs part of your total compensation unless they vest quarterly to yearly. If they take a full four years to start vesting you definitely shouldn’t count on that income.
mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 8 months ago
Honestly, consider banning any reward besides cold hard cash. Pay people up-front and in full. If there’s residuals then they’re a percent gross and don’t say shit about employment.
If somebody did the work - give them the fucking money.
Complicated forms of theft should put white-collar scumbags in prison.
qupada@kbin.social 8 months ago
Plays out in small tech companies too, albeit in a slightly different way.
Got that carrot dangled in front of me at a past job. Company was past start-up phase; self-supporting and doing ok, but not outrageously well. Promises of riches should the company be "noticed" and bought for an outrageous amount.
Of course none of that accounted for the CEO (founder and 85% shareholder) being an absolute crazy person, who would change the development roadmap into making a vastly different product than the one we (the techies) believed in, TURN DOWN THE OUTRAGEOUS SUM BECAUSE HE THOUGHT HE COULD GET A BETTER OFFER, basically run the company into the ground, and wind up selling it for a pittance (which would have made the employees' share a pittance of a pittance).
I mean most of us had already left by that point, but finding out around 4 years after that he'd turned down about $150M and wound up selling out for $3M, that stung a little.
FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Reminds me of a place I worked for in the 90s. We were the premiere catalog of contemporary radio drama in the country. It was niche, but doing okay. One day, this company comes up to us and says that they’re starting a satellite radio network and if we work on a commission basis, the company will make a lot of money. Only about five people worked there and we all begged and pleaded with the owner to take the offer, but he was nuts and kept saying things like, “there’s GOT to be a catch!” So he ended up passing.
Yes, that was Sirius, which became XM.
Fucking moron.
CandleTiger@programming.dev 8 months ago
Hey, I worked there!
nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 8 months ago
Sounds familiar to me too.