Employee compensation and one-year equity grants

https://tanay.substack.com/p/employee-compensation-and-one-year

by acjohnson55 • 5 years ago

42 10 5 years ago

tanay.substack.com

samspenc• 5 years ago

While this is worth a discussion, I'm not sure I agree 100% . It looks like the author has only seen the past 10+ year bull market, and not seen falling valuations, which could wipe out equity options and render them underwater or below the price they were granted at ... or completely useless if the company they are working for (startups in the case of this article) goes under.

Yes, delayed instead of immediate grants work fantastic when the company stock is increasing in value, sometimes spectacularly, but that doesn't always happen.

"Surely, declining stock value at startups is theoretical!" you say? Look no further than what happened with the Uber RSU debacle just late last year (2020), when Uber tried to do the right thing in helping its employees, but a falling stock price meant that employees lost out and ended up suing the company: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/28/nearly-200-uber-employees-su...

ergocoder4• 5 years ago

You could also be laid off. Downside protection is a marginal benefit nobody has ever asked for.

Yeah, I join this startup because I expect it will fail!

ido3• 5 years ago

It's legitimate to point out the potential downsides. Even if you hope the startup you join will succeed and believe in its chances, plenty of promising companies fail (sometimes simply due to circumstances). Hedging your bets (or "hope for the best but plan for the worst") is absolutely something a lot of people want/do/"ask for".

Looking at the article the author bases their analysis on stock value growth of Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft - which are absolutely not typical/expected.

frizzle112• 5 years ago

Basing the argument on single company stock reliably going up is a big mistake, but I do think the longer-dated stock awards are advantageous to many employees because they're effectively an employee option - every month/quarter/year you have the option to quit for a market rate job elsewhere or accept whatever the stock is worth.

Also if a stock dips many employers in competitive markets will end up compensating somehow. It's difficult to model because it depends on how employers behave and how much they want to retain you. If they reliably give you extra grants/bonus to get people back to target compensation after a decrease in stock price, then the downside risk of longer-dated grants is reduced a lot, but you still have significant upside.

Reality is that people don't want to job hop always, not everyone can easily find a market rate job, employers don't 100% true people up after a stock dips and and employer might not be invested in retaining even a good employee. So YMMV.

Employee compensation and one-year equity grants

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