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so i was laid off from @npmjs last friday, one month before my vesting cliff. if you're not familiar with how options generally work at startups, this means i will not be able to exercise the stock options i was granted as part of my hiring package
stock options are not that important to me. i've been granted options before, at other companies, but through a combination of not having enough money to exercise and being skeptical about the potential returns, i've never exercised options in my ~12 years working in tech
(a previous company bought out my options once, in a situation too convoluted to recount.)
fwiw I've known people who've lawyered up over this sort of thing and you stand a good chance of recovering your equity if you want to stick it to em
Really??? I wish someone would have told me this at my first big tech job 
yup, in practice "at-will" employment has a lot of caveats if you're willing to fight, and unless the employer has rock solid documentation that you suck, theres a good chance you can extract a settlement. that figure goes up if you are of a protected class.
most employers carry employment practices insurance. as soon as you lawyer up and send them a demand letter they are required to send it to the insurance carrier.
the carrier has their own lawyers who will argue on the employer's behalf, but they absolutely do not give a shit if total settlement cost is less than or equal to the deductible, which is 50k last time I was an employer.
this should be common knowledge it’s fucked me twice in the past 8 years
yup. this is why you are pressured to sign a severance agreement on the way out of the door. it is pretty much never in your interests to sign it before at least talking to a lawyer
Wait, if @npmjs is laying people off, why do I see them spamming that they're hiring?
The answer is in your question
That’s not an answer.
So they can pay new people less / don't have to pay out stock options.
Huh. I thought it was standard that in the event of involuntary termination, stock options would immediately vest.
Definitely not standard. I’ve had that at I think one of the five companies I’ve had stock options with.
not sure if it is. it wasn't for me. the company also refused to acknowledge the day i got my last paycheck (i did additional work to wrap things up) as the date i had 60 days to exercise from. they weren't answering emails & i ended up missing the exercise date they went with
Pro tip: always negotiate acceleration of vesting being triggered by being fired.
Sorry to hear this
. You could try to take legal action, but depending on your state it may go nowhere and end up costing you a lot of money. It still may be worth it to have a lawyer draft up a letter for wrongful termination and see if they bite.
Startups are basically making indentured servants of great talent by offering vesting options. Its part of a great compensation package that gives you a lower salary with a promise of great reward. Your situation isn’t uncommon.
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