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Comment by wavephorm | Hacker News Reader

  With the unvested shares, the executives believed they could 
  attract more top talent with the promise of stock.

Not anymore they won't.

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I couldn't agree more. Even if we assume there is a justifiable reason or perhaps its happening only to employees who have not performed (which I doubt can be the case considering those employees could not have lasted this long any way), this probably has done irreparable damage to their reputation in the eyes of current and prospective employees. I hope all this bad PR makes them reconsider it, if not anything else.

> I hope all this bad PR makes them reconsider it, if not anything else.

Even if they reconsider, I doubt any "top talent" will be joining them any time soon, if ever again. At least, not with a twelve-pound contract inked in blood.

Honestly at this point I think the damage is long done. I'm just glad that they got to eat their dog food after being so nasty to their employees

I know several top-tier CS school classmates who are seniors and had interviewed with Zynga. They were considering working there. Not anymore.

Note to companies: Don't be assholes. We don't like assholes.

"Friends don't let friends work at Zynga" was something I heard floating around a while back...

I was told my many folks I respect that Zynga is a sweat shop, and discouraged me going there. Now, with the options scandal, Zynga shot themselves in their foot. What is surprising is, Bing Gordon is on KP's board and an honorable, great chap. Wonder why didn't he advise Pincus against this. Pincus openly admitted that Bing is a great friend and mentor. It is a poor reflection on KPCB, the venerable VC firm.

The new hires will just need 'no takebacks' written into their contracts.

The only way that happens is if they're hired with vested stock, which is just not going to happen.

But still then mark pincus would find another way to cheat his developers. The only way to deal with little lucifers like this is to completely avoid and ignore them.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pincus

They would also have to remember to put "no callbacks times infinity".

Never sign a contract with someone for whom you think a contract is necessary.

No, contracts are useful even if you trust the other party intimately, because they spell out, in writing, exactly what is expected of each party. Believe it or not, sometimes disputes arise even among people who had the best intentions.

They also allow you to continue to do business even if the other company changes hands.

I think the point you're trying to make is that if you already don't trust someone, a contract is not going to save you. That I can agree with.

The latter is what I meant. I didn't mean don't sign contracts. I meant don't do business with scum.

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