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Comment by bux93 | Hacker News Reader

"Any unvested restricted stock units, however, were forfeited immediately."

wow.

Isn't this normal? I thought that's how it typically works when an employee leaves a company with any method.

When laying people off, better companies will often accelerate vesting so that the departing employees get additional stock. For example, Google does this:

We’ll also offer a severance package starting at 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year at Google, and accelerate at least 16 weeks of GSU vesting.

https://blog.google/company-news/inside-google/message-ceo/j...

Google did this in 2023, and this blog was a good PR move to make people think they are still doing this today.

OK but for most people a 16-week acceleration is still forfeiting 92% of unvested shares.

By the same logic, wouldn't 4 months of severance pay be equivalent to forfeiting 92% of salary?

For something paid at regular intervals like RSUs, you really should never be looking at the total value of the grant, and instead think of it in terms of how many shares per paycheck/month/quarter/year you vest.

If you've got a cliff coming up, that's different. I'd be pissed if a company laid me off 11.5 months into a 12 month cliff or a few weeks before an annual bonus and didn't accelerate the vesting / bonus.

That's exactly my point. "Losing" your RSUs is the same as losing all your other income that you did not earn because you don't work there any more.

Would you rather forfeit 100% of unvested shares? Because that's what you signed up for.

The point is, you're getting shares for 16 weeks + ${years_employment * 2} additional weeks, and you don't have to work those weeks. It's comp that, according to the terms you agreed to when you accepted the job, you are not entitled to. You're getting it as an unearned parting gift.

Yes, it sucks to be laid off. But it sucks a little less if you get a parting gift that for many of the more senior folks will run into six figures.

Would you rather have that parting gift or not? Because some companies don't give you one when when they lay you off.

That's what the contract would typically say. But it's not uncommon to have accelerated vesting either when parting on good terms or with severance.

This is the unfair part. Quite often salary is reduced with the excuse of having stock options. So this is more like a cut in earned salary along with getting fired.

Since moving to NYC, I'm surprisingly close to cashflow neutral. The cost of living is crazy expensive here.

I'm for sure timing my exit based on the vesting schedule.

Just an FYI, if you're ok with not being in Manhattan or the cool parts of Brooklyn, it's really not that bad.

I live pretty far east in Brooklyn. I'm still only a few blocks away from a train; apartments in this area, even with a bedroom, can go for less than $2,000/month. Not "cheap" but not unlivable either.

Pretty vicious. As an employee I wouldn't consider working at Oracle or any company that's done this when there are plenty of companies which, despite layoffs sucking for everyone involved, at least compensate their employees decently when it happens.

That's the definition of "unvested"

Anyone evaluating compensation and stock options should understand vesting periods and what they mean so they're not surprised by something like this.

That's what the word "vested" means.

Ouch. Imagine being let go just a few weeks from vesting. Doesn't seem fair to let someone work for months and months in anticipation of their big prize and then yank it away at the last minute.

This is standard in every tech RSU vest schedule I have seen.

Yes, it's the standard in every legal doc I've ever seen too, but most companies have typically done some accelerated vesting as part of severance. Of course they don't have to, but it's a generally lower cost way of showing some good will.

I've helped a number of people with negotiations and reviews of their employment offers.

I would strongly disagree that accelerated vesting upon layoff is common. It's rare.

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