Smoothing out the income that employees get from options seems like it could be both healthy (psychologically) and good for tax purposes, at least in some juris

Smoothing out the income that employees get from options seems like it could be both healthy (psychologically) and good for tax purposes, at least in some jurisdictions (Australia, for example). I'm not sure how having an incentive for employees to want the company to be more valuable not just at a far-off IPO but also in the next six months or two years is a bad thing. As another poster pointed out, there can be restrictions placed on transfers of ownership.