It is, though the currency he lays his employees with is equity. That’s the challenge that Big Tech has to confront. If the stock value falls too much, Zuck won’t be able to convince engineers to join him for the ride.
It will eventually be a problem (in the sense that switching to GOOG or AMZN will be a much better prospect) if the stock continues to go down, of course. And a new hire evaluating their stock package should probably be a little concerned about the trend.
The infrastructure to support you getting your work done is great. There are reasonably interesting software problems to solve. There are smart people to work with. There are some good benefits.
Never mind the convoluted tax implications of exercising options that are nominally not underwater, but whose stock has a lower value that at the time of granting.
If you factor in taxes, you could end up owing more in taxes than the shares are worth (ex: vest price is $10/ea, taxes are $3/ea, current price you can sell at is less than $3 == underwater).
I think Aurora employees were locked out for 180 days, but force to exercise options at IPO price.
[0] - https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/28/nearly-200-uber-employees-su...
Think about it this way: Giving 20 billion in new equity per year when the market cap is a trillion dilutes everyone 2%. When the market cap is 500 billion you are now diluting everyone 4%.
When the company is growing you don’t see the dilution as the increase in stock price is much higher. When it’s static this drags your shares down over time.