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

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

#121

Post by fab13n »

johngalt wrote: post #86
joshAg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as an executive, do you think that zynga's executive team gave any thought to the bad press this might generate and the talent that this might scare away? From my perspective, this sort of thing scares me away from companies, because they might do it again in the future.

It's not like Zynga will have another IPO in the future, or will need to promise future employees equity. Precisely why "trust" should never be a part of an equity negotiation. When millions are on the table people will do whatever they can get away with. Zynga doesn't want another "google chef", but they took full advantage of the "google chef" when promising equity to early employees.

Indeed, they will only have one IPO. But the PR backlash can seriously affect it, if it's made clear to everyone that the execs are crooks, and that they'll never be able to hire talents again.

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

#122

Post by johngalt »

Zynga is aiming squarely at their feet and firing a cannon.

Would you invest in a company where management is obviously looking for a short term cashout at the expense of the future success of the company? The future success is precisely what the investor is buying. It's like buying a car while the seller is actively pulling parts out of it.

The results of this will be reduced share values combined with lawsuits eating up any potential gains.

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

#123

Post by pavel_lishin »

betterlabs wrote: post #82
wavephorm wrote: post #7

With the unvested shares, the executives believed they could attract more top talent with the promise of stock. Not anymore they won't.

I couldn't agree more. Even if we assume there is a justifiable reason or perhaps its happening only to employees who have not performed (which I doubt can be the case considering those employees could not have lasted this long any way), this probably has done irreparable damage to their reputation in the eyes of current and prospective employees. I hope all this bad PR makes them reconsider it, if not anything else.

> I hope all this bad PR makes them reconsider it, if not anything else.

Even if they reconsider, I doubt any "top talent" will be joining them any time soon, if ever again. At least, not with a twelve-pound contract inked in blood.

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

#124

Post by danilocampos »

Androsynth wrote: post #113
danilocampos wrote: post #76

Wait a minute. What just a damn minute, here. Are you telling me that a company that cheerfully built itself on shady shit like un-removable browser toolbars might continue screwing anyone it wants in the furtherance of its leaders' avarice? I am shocked. Look, it's endearing when people have scrappy stories about their origins. We all act out of desperate vigor when we're up against the wall and far from our goals.…

Is it ever that simple? How can you know a person's moral character just through a job interview? What about if you were Zynga employee #50 and Pincus didn't even interview you, but the company wasn't big enough for TC to post about it's shadiness? What if an honest man gets tempted by 9 figures in a once in a lifetime situation?

It may be more simple than you guess!

If dishonesty has infused a company's DNA, that's often something you can feel. Values cluster people together, so a founder with... shall we say, ethical flexibilities, will often surround him or herself with others of similar persuasions.

So I'd say it trickles down. You get a vibe. I've met people who I'd never want to work with only because of the spidey sense tingling, you know? Nothing I could put my finger on. But unsettling enough to be a deal breaker. You gotta trust these things.

I'm not saying it's easy, or even fair. Plenty of these guys are honest folk getting screwed, I'm sure. But you must be vigilant to work with those who share your values.

On the other hand, anyone who joined Zynga after their dishonesty was laid bare should not be surprised at the outcome. Again, still not right or fair. But there was the warning.

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

#125

Post by wavephorm »

Androsynth wrote: post #65
mmaunder wrote: post #33

Sometimes you just have to sue to enforce a contract and your rights. Many employees either don't realize this or they don't have the stomach for it. If you find yourself in this position, my advice is to play the game and see it through. 1. Don't resign, don't capitulate and hire a good lawyer immediately. If you don't have the cashflow, but are defending a huge pile of stock about to IPO you'll probably find a lawy…

Do they have a legal footing to stand on? The way I read it is: 'We consider you overpaid for the job you are doing and we no longer wish to keep you around at that compensation level'. That is a valid reason to fire someone in CA isn't it?

The employees that get their shares stolen can sue for extortion, which is exactly how I and most people would describe this situation. Unfortunately the law generally favors those with more money and resources.

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

#126

Post by danilocampos »

raganwald wrote: post #108
danilocampos wrote: post #76

Wait a minute. What just a damn minute, here. Are you telling me that a company that cheerfully built itself on shady shit like un-removable browser toolbars might continue screwing anyone it wants in the furtherance of its leaders' avarice? I am shocked. Look, it's endearing when people have scrappy stories about their origins. We all act out of desperate vigor when we're up against the wall and far from our goals.…

> I am shocked. Don’t you mean “Shocked, shocked to find shady business going on in here?” Your winnings, sir.

It's surely a testament to the quality of Casablanca's writing that its resulting cliches are still so satisfying after all this time.

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

#128

Post by kls »

Androsynth wrote: post #89
kls wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IT is not a valid reason to reclaim unvested stock, those are looked at like current compensation when termination is unjust. You cant terminate someone just to unvest them. That being said, I always draw a line through and contract that says that I loose vesting on termination, and change it to all options become instantly vested on termination. IF they want to negotiate as to when the options will be awarded to ens…

They're being terminated because they are not contributing relative to the amount they are being compensated. That seems to be perfectly legal to me (although it will probably hurt them in the long run).

Right, I am fine with the part that hey we think you are overpaid and we want to renegotiate the option awards that have not been granted, but they are walking a fine line renegotiation the ones that have already been awarded but have not vested. Many companies will award a certain amount of options and those options come with a vesting schedule so for example I get awarded 4 shares that vest in one year. My contract would say that I get 4 awards of 4 shared over 4 years and those awards vest in 1 year. They are going to run into trouble if they try to claw back the awarded shared because technically I have put in the work for those shares. Now if the contract says all stocks will be awarded in 4 years then yes technically they have not earned them yet, but I would have walked from that contract the moment I saw it.

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

#129

Post by cageface »

api wrote: post #12
cageface wrote: post #9

Is it just me or is tech particularly sleazy right now?

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 peopl…

I'm not willing to go into specifics, but I will say that I saw worse things in the biotech industry. Having something in the pipeline for human clinical trials really boosts the IPO, even if maybe it doesn't belong there.

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

#130

Post by funkdobiest »

api wrote: post #53
pavel_lishin wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be willing to do an anonymous AMA, or write up some of your experiences?

I'll do a quick summary. Episode 1: (this is the one that most directly affected me) I was working on a very interesting but somewhat far-off technology. I did some tech talks about it, and put them on Google Video. Was approached by a guy who said he was a wealthy early-stage technology investor. He showed me a lot of stuff that indicated that this was the case, had a lot of real people vouching for him, etc. He mad…

Did you work in Arizona? This is the standard business mentality there.
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