There is a scheduled date (every 2 weeks for my paycheck, every 6 months for my RSUs) where I will be given some If you quit or get fired, you won't get your paychecks on the days you expected to in the future. Nor will you get your RSU vests. Same thing. Just bigger numbers and lower frequency for one of them, with some additional variability in amounts. They aren't golden handcuffs. They aren't job security or threats. They're just pay to keep you working, like anything else. edit: I lost a word or two.
1) From an investment risk perspective, your personal livelihood is already significantly tied to the company because you rely on the company for a salary. Holding a significant chunk (relative to your total investments) of stock in your company as well adds to that risk.
2) Unless you're a C-suite exec, your actions will likely have no direct impact on the stock price. And obviously, insider trading is illegal. That means holding your own company's stock has no fundamental advantage over holding stock of a company you don't work for. If that's the case, you're better off picking stocks based on actual performance and eliminate the personal bias.
3) You can sell your RSUs once they vest in order to diversify, but you have to wait a year after vesting or short term gains tax will apply to any gains post-vesting. So, it might be advantageous to wait a year if you don't plan to sell immediately upon vesting. Also, with some companies, a portion of your shares will be surrendered back to the company to cover income tax on the shares.
4) From a tax filing perspective, RSUs and ESPPs can be a PITA. In my experience, tax software and general tax filing services often don't know how to correctly record the cost basis, which means you end up getting taxed twice if you don't know what you're doing.
5) When cash is tight, companies might lean more heavily on RSU-based compensation if they can't afford raises or cash bonuses. You need to make sure your company is giving you what you need.
6) The golden handcuff effect. You want to leave for a better job, but you've got a nice chunk of RSUs that haven't vested yet and could be worth quite a bit in just a couple more years. Is that new job worth the opportunity cost of giving up those shares? For companies that award RSUs as part of yearly performance reviews, you're pretty much always going to have some RSUs that are 3 years out from vesting. It's just difficult weighing the potential value of RSUs vs a new job's salary/benefits and whatever reasons you wanted to jump ship in the first place. It's very personal math and ultimately you have to determine an answer for yourself.
You'll continually get a raise each year and a portion of that will be new RSUs that vest over the next four years. If you ever want to leave, that continually means leaving a substantial amount of money on the table. Thankfully some companies will give you a hiring bonus equal to your unvested RSUs though (edit: the big tech companies poaching from each other will sometimes do it, for those asking).
As with all things labor related, RSUs are transactional. "Loyalty" shouldn't play into it because a large publicly traded corporation can only be so loyal to every one of it's employees.
If you think of RSUs as an investment, then its a different game. However, it is no different than owning stock on NASDAQ. You can get rich if you buy the right stock.
Hence, my perspective. All cash better than RSU. If you wanna buy stocks then just buy from stock exchange of whichever company you want.
Caveat: For startups where you get equity this argument doesn't hold true. There the startup might end up a unicorn and you make ton of money.
They allow the business to transfer some of the risk from them to you. Basically a kind of I'll pay you more if I can.
Think of it as, I'll pay you X dollars now, and in 4 years, I'll pay you an additional Y dollars * how much I can afford, unless you no longer work here. Where "how much I can afford" is basically the stock price.
It's better than the same salary without RSU. It's worse than a higher salary of equal worth. For anything in between, it depends on your risk tolerance and when you'll need the money.
As for RSU's, as others have mentioned, it is great to think of it as additional money and base everything on your base pay (pun unitended). Never sign up for a job where your base pay may vary based on RSU grants, I am surprised to read something to that effect on this thread.
As for job security, I don't think it is a function of your role, salary base pay or stock grants. It is a function of market dynamics and how your company is doing well in the space it operates in, so it is our job to keep an eye on that. If you see winds of change that may hurt you, one better ensure not getting caught in the crossfire.
So I think it is better to be loyal to your own career and the good side effect of that is being loyal to your role and hence your current employer!
There is no way to be exactly sure what they will be worth. Stock prices not only go up and down but the “long term” (lower tax) date to sell them is even further away. Even well-known companies see major shifts in stock value.
RSUs are also a different “class” of stock typically, meaning that in the event of a catastrophe your shares are not at the top of the list. Company goes under? More important investors get their payouts first, your shares may be worth literally zero. Less if you believe in lost opportunity costs, etc.
Save your loyalty for a nice non-profit or co-op doing some good thing that you feel passionate about in your community, just give your employer your time until such a time as things change and you feel it's no longer worth it.