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There's several reasons a bus is seen as worse than them being poached: * Early startup employees have golden handcuffs regarding switching jobs. Sure, Faceboo

There's several reasons a bus is seen as worse than them being poached: * Early startup employees have golden handcuffs regarding switching jobs. Sure, Facebook is offering them $500k but they'd be on the hook for $200k in taxes if they exercise their options and they leave a bunch more un-vested options on the table. * You can mitigate them leaving by having a better work environment, equity and so on. Not much you can do about a bus. * You can pay them to stay on for another month or to consult after the fact. No amount of money get's you an hour long phone call to the afterlife. edit: Also, the article underestimates the effort needed to get a FAANG job. They don't just call you up and offer you a job. They offer you the chance to take a grueling set of white board interviews that require months of studying to pass.

JonLim 6y ago
As a counter point: the golden handcuffs for startups/companies aren't guaranteed to pay off, so the employee may decide that the options are still worth $0 and not bother with incurring taxes by exercising. I'm probably okay with losing out on a sale event with a startup I've left, especially if my stake is <1%, if the big tech company pays as well as it's reported. YMMV.
redisman 6y ago
Options for most startups are mostly way overrated. The opportunity cost to hang around for 5-10 years to maybe get to a liquidation event is very high.
- acapybara 6y ago
  Seems like a thing where if a FAANG wanted the early startup employee enough, they would gladly compensate for the one-time cost with a signing bonus.
shrimpx 6y ago
I think an important part of the "golden handcuffs" is the employee's sense of deep expertise and importance at their current company, especially if they were a very early hire. Coupled with a bit of impostor syndrome, this can create a huge gravitational well where the employee sticks around even in a bad situation. They are afraid that by switching they will take a huge "demotion" in terms of their overall importance and the weight of their decisions in a new team/company.

JonLim 6y ago

As a counter point: the golden handcuffs for startups/companies aren't guaranteed to pay off, so the employee may decide that the options are still worth $0 and not bother with incurring taxes by exercising. I'm probably okay with losing out on a sale event with a startup I've left, especially if my stake is <1%, if the big tech company pays as well as it's reported. YMMV.

redisman 6y ago

Options for most startups are mostly way overrated. The opportunity cost to hang around for 5-10 years to maybe get to a liquidation event is very high.

acapybara 6y ago
Seems like a thing where if a FAANG wanted the early startup employee enough, they would gladly compensate for the one-time cost with a signing bonus.

shrimpx 6y ago

I think an important part of the "golden handcuffs" is the employee's sense of deep expertise and importance at their current company, especially if they were a very early hire. Coupled with a bit of impostor syndrome, this can create a huge gravitational well where the employee sticks around even in a bad situation. They are afraid that by switching they will take a huge "demotion" in terms of their overall importance and the weight of their decisions in a new team/company.