I'm going to be in a position soon to start hiring people and I've been thinking long and hard about this. I do think that engineers tend to get the short end

I'm going to be in a position soon to start hiring people and I've been thinking long and hard about this. I do think that engineers tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to options, even when the nominal percentages sound good. I can think of friends who were early engineers at "successful" companies that took an awful long time to see any real money, let alone the vast majority who get nothing. I'm seriously considering a profit sharing / options system where options are only vested in quarters that are unprofitable and profit sharing occurs otherwise. I know that this wouldn't be different at all for many start-ups that have little chance of profitability early on, but for those that do it could be a very interesting way to align interest and not screw the employees.