A Raise May Be Out of the Question, but You Do Have Other Options
Not all restricted stock units are created equally, so make sure you pay close attention to your company’s trading rules.
Layoffs have swept through the tech industry (and more may be on the horizon), flooding the job market with qualified candidates—just like you—as even the large companies are fighting to stay afloat. It’s crazy how we can go from graciously accepting $200,000 “stock refreshers” to expressing gratitude simply for employment. Forget negotiating your next salary; your leverage will be extremely limited.
Stock-based compensation, however, is something you definitely shouldn’t forget about. Especially in this time of chaos, $100,000 in restricted stock units at one public company is not necessarily worth $100,000 at another. This is not just because of stock performance, although that is obviously a factor. The variance of insider trading rules is so vast that unless you’re careful, you might as well be playing roulette with your net worth.