[pushrax]

> football player style contracts for engineers, where you are tied in to a team for N years, and with a requirement that another team has to pay big money for your contract if they want you to transfer?

i.e. golden handcuff equity grants with vesting schedules? Top performers in highly demanded areas can have some or all of their remaining equity bought out.

It definitely ties the value of the contract to the stock price. In a way the company is leveraging its stock - significant declines hurt talent retention, and significant gains help it.

[gorgoiler]

That’s different. You are talking about doing a deal with the player.

I’m talking about Company X having to pay off Cloudflare-the-business if they want Team Cloudflare’s top network engineer to transfer to Team Company X, mid contract.

[nradov]

That only really works in professional sports because each team is part of a league which enforces operating rules, including rules about player contracts and trades. No such "league" exists in the tech industry, and any attempt to form one would likely be a criminal violation of antitrust laws.

[gorgoiler]

Gosh. Are sports stars really so different as employees? I suppose they get paid so much specifically to endure such odd employment circumstances.

[rightbyte]

Sounds like servitude or serfs? Elite sport is one thing but for mere mortals I guess it would become extremely abusive.