Employees Still Want Stock Options

from the sense-of-ownership-is-important dept

During the boom years, people were giving up high salaries to take jobs where they received piles and piles of stock options, believing that their dot com lottery tickets were guaranteed to bring them insane wealth. While it worked out for many people, many more ended up with nothing more than a lesson in the downsides of risk. You might think, in these "back to reality" times, stock options wouldn't be as big a draw any more, but that turns out to not be true. Employees still want stock options - and it's for the same reason that stock options were originally created: to give the employees a sense of ownership in the company they work for. While most admit that it doesn't change their day-to-day behavior (and it shouldn't), it does make them more loyal and more likely to keep track of how the company is doing overall. It's just that most people don't expect to cash in their options a year after joining a company and retire to travel the world.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Nathan, 26 Jan 2004 @ 4:57am

    What?!?!

    You mean they have realistic goals.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ed Halley, 26 Jan 2004 @ 10:45am

    No Subject Given

    I'd much rather receive stock than options (having received both). Stock has equity, while options don't. Stock is real involvement in the company, while options are just a shadow promise that you might own stock in the future. I don't even mind if they have a vesting schedule before I can walk away with them, but make them real stock shares, please.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.