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Comment by darth_avocado | Hacker News Reader

Feels like at this point, employees should just buy stock of the companies they work at, at least that way they get something in return when companies "create value for the shareholders".

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Investing in your employer also means that when things go bad, they go doubly bad, since you're both laid off and your investments falter.

If you're not willing to invest your money with your employer, why are you investing your time with them?

Why work for someone or something that you don't believe in?

I get it that many people have limited choices in life, but the readers of this forum are typically of a talent level that allows them to have more of a choice.

Don't stay working at a job you don't believe in. Life is too short.

Investing your time (working) in the company gets you an immediate return - your paycheck. It has no direct bearing whether the company succeeds or not. In large companies, unless you are very high up, your individual actions have no influence on the company's stock price.

I used to think this.. and then 10 years went buy where I realised that I was making major contributions to the company that were benefitting them massively, and I was not buying their stock, even though I was directly responsible for their success. (regardless that I am not an executive or manager)

I later realised that it only made sense to invest in every company you work for.

I also was very disappointed that someone never gave me this advice, and instead I got the opposite advice that my actions don't matter. The same advice that you are trying to give now.

It was bad advice then, it is bad advice now, and it is the wrong advice for this audience.

The number one rule with investing is diversity.

It's not like you would invest your entire portfolio with your company, so why you think it's overly concerning to invest even a small amount with a company you are intimately familiar with is beyond me.

Historically (in tech at least) the stock price goes up when layoffs are announced. So buying your employer's stock may serve as a small insurance against being laid off.

Home Depot has a program where you can buy stock at a discount. IIRC, you set aside the amount you want to purchase, wait 3 months, and then they sell you the stock at 15% under the lowest value seen during that time frame. It was their version of an employee discount, but I don't think the program was used all that often.

Lots of companies have this scheme, usually called Employee Stock Purchase Plan. 2 of my previous employers had it, and it was quite popular among employees as well.

In theory yes, but in reality the individual will probably not end up getting much. The lions share will go to the big investment houses and preferred shareholders. The individual will end up spending an outsize portion of any gains on fees and such.

I think the sort of employee who gets rewarded with a bin of cookies doesn't have the spare cash for that.

> Feels like at this point, employees should just buy stock of the companies they work at

inflated stock price through extra demand -> more wealth for major shareholders

Or unionize. Just as capitalism uses rule systems to capture wealth creation for shareholders, unions can capture greater benefits for labor. Don’t play a losing game, find leverage points.

https://www.google.com/search?q=uaw+historic+win (for example)

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