from Hacker News

Ask HN: Opinions on Google's alternate stock vesting schedule?

by hm8 on 7/31/20, 6:25 AM with 0 comments

I just learnt about Google's alternate stock vesting schedule where the first 40% of GSU vests in the 1st year [1]. My first reaction was of puzzlement. Thinking further, I thought this was a brilliant idea to continue having competitive offers. In my (limited) past experience, I've found Google offers to be slightly under compared to similar companies in the Bay Area.

I was wondering what the HN community thinks of this move from Google. How (un)friendly is it to potential employees? What kind of cascading effect would it have on compensation?

[1] https://www.levels.fyi/company/Google/salaries/#:~:text=Alternatively%2C%20Google%20also%20has%20the,GSU%20(Google%20Stock%20Unit).

by brudgers on 7/31/20, 3:13 PM
Google is a large company. It's enterprise, not a startup. Stock grants are not an incentive to retain employees while working toward a liquidation event...Google IPO'd the better part of twenty years ago. It's no big deal if an employee leaves because the typical employee is not a critical hire. The typical employee is a fungible body selected from the best available at the moment.