So, I would have agreed with this before I worked there. It's stock, it's done well, great for you as an employee! Amazon has what they call a 'total compensat

So, I would have agreed with this before I worked there. It's stock, it's done well, great for you as an employee! Amazon has what they call a 'total compensation philosophy'. Basically, if the stock has done really well in the past year, your salary increase and stock bonus in your next annual review will be adjusted accordingly. If you've done really well and they'd strongly regret you leaving, you can negotiate on this, but only if you've got leverage. After my first full year there they offered me a 2.3% salary increase, zero additional stock[0], and when I pushed back said 'look how well the stock has done! you're going to make way more this year than you had expected'. I politely informed them that they seemed to be trying to feed me a pile of bullshit, that bullshit wasn't part of my approved diet, and that if they continued trying to do so, this would be my last week with Amazon. My next meeting (a few days later) included a considerably better compensation adjustment. [0]: This was in part due to confusion on who qualified for equity. I'd started January 3rd of the preceding year. They believed only people employed prior to Jan 1st qualified. I had brought my offer letter to the meeting, after having been warned to be prepared for these sorts of shenanigans, which clearly said that because I'd started prior to Jan 15th, I was absolutely eligible. That would be the end of the story, except they then tried the line "Well, not everyone receives an equity refresh every year". I had exceeded expectations and hit the top leadership bucket. If that didn't qualify for equity, I wasn't really interested in continuing with Amazon. The irony: the equity grant I eventually received didn't start vesting until ~18 months after that meeting. I quit ~13 months later.