Zynga to employees: Give back our stock or you'll be fired

Very. It's bad.

I kind of got out of startups for that reason. I just couldn't take working with sociopaths anymore. I have some stories. Serious f'ing stories. And no, I'm not just "player hating." A lot of it didn't even involve me. I just couldn't take working in proximity to such sleaze.

Tech's had this reputation as a place where fortunes can be made. That's going to attract a lot of ambitious and creative people, but it's also going to attract a lot of scum.

What amazes me about my personal experiences is how unsuccessful a lot of the sociopathic behavior was. It really brought home to me that these people have a mental illness. In the same way that someone with severe OCD will do things like wash their hands until the skin comes off, these people are neurotically compelled to dominate others even if doing so actually harms them. They must win their petty battles and dominate those seen as weaker, even if it means losing in the real world.

I literally watched the moment at which a pathological sociopath tanked a million-dollar opportunity because he had to try to put one over on his partner. Had to.

Scumbag Zynga?

Make money pressuring users to pay for virtual goods. Pressure employees to give stock for virtual jobs...

Looking at their products and how they treat their users I would have expected them to be sleazy in other ways too. I think it's just Zynga.

Its called Mafia Wars for a reason..now we know the reason..capice

Not quite, since it's unvested shares they're taking back. The company has promised to give those shares to the employees when they hit certain tenure milestones, but the company still owns them in the meantime. If they fire the employee, the company keeps those shares.