[kelnos]

Sure, but we're not talking about salary cuts or a shared-success model as the only possible alternative. Why not just do away with equity compensation or bonuses entirely, and pay people more?

(I mean, I know why; equity compensation is a much cheaper way for a company to compensate employees than extra salary or even bonuses.)

I think shared-success is a fair model (regardless of whether or not it's good for morale or productivity) when the company is small enough where you can at least somewhat understand how an individual employee's work contributes directly to revenue. But companies grow past that point, sometimes quickly.

Having said that, I think I made out very well with equity comp at my last company, much much better than I would have done if there was no equity comp, and we all just had higher salaries. But I think that outcome isn't common, especially when you only consider employees in non-executive positions.