At any sufficiently large company, the connection between my work and the stock price is loose at best. If you're an executive, it might be more direct. But in

At any sufficiently large company, the connection between my work and the stock price is loose at best. If you're an executive, it might be more direct. But in the public companies I have been an employee of, I have never felt a shred of motivation from this stock-based "ownership" in the sense of a true belief that doing better work will make that stock be worth more. In the aggregate, yes, but individually, no.