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.