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Comment by emptysea | Hacker News Reader

I found the option repricing history fascinating.

"what about me", cries the person with a $300 RSU price while the stock is trading at $100 -- it always seems like the first thing that comes up in company chat when the company stock tanks. Part of the deal I suppose. Other option is to jump ship, but that's scarier in a bear market.

Also jibed with:

> my general advice to folks would be to stay where you are as long as you’re reasonably happy day to day and feel like you’re learning at a good rate. Even if your effective compensation has declined a bit, it’s very hard to determine if the compensation at any other company will hold up either.

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RSUs are a very different story from options. That $300 RSU still has 33% of its value left; the option is worthless. This is one of the reasons the industry is moving toward RSUs. No repricing drama.

Well, there were also accounting rule changes.

What about it? Someone with an option actually paid money to exercise it. They actually loose some of their own money based on their own decision.

Someone with an RSU they thought was worth $300 when they negotiated and thought it would be at $600 by the time it vested and they could sell it now only get $100 per RSU they actually sell.

My answer to "What about me"? Well boo hoo!

Random internet search yields and example on blind:

    FB offer $185k base + $200k RSU/year = $385k total comp

Let's apply your 300/100 example. So the poor guy "only" makes $185k base + ~66k RSUs. IFF he actually sells.

> Someone with an option actually paid money to exercise it.

If you still have the option, then you haven't paid to exercise it. Once you exercise it, you have a stock (or the sale proceeds in the case of an exercise-and-sell transaction).

The industry decided it was cheaper for them to hire and retain by compensating in stock rather than cash. Now that this is no longer as sweet carrot, employers should also face the consequence, and realize they need to adapt compensation, or loose employees.

why would it be scarier to jump in a bear market? If you are jumping, you wouldn't jump into a worse situation if you had a choice.

If the fear is getting laid off, why would you jump to a company that is going to lay you off? On the other hand why would staying put in a bear market be safe? You might get laid off anyways.

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