Has your total compensation drastically changed with the stock downturn?

My total compensation dropped about 20%. It was definitely a meaningful motivator to switch jobs. I started a new job this month, which put me back at market rate for my level and geo, plus a modest raise.

Many people advise staying put during economic downturns for stability, but I actually think switching jobs is quite advantageous because you can get more shares per dollar in your initial equity grant. My shares at the new company were granted at a price ~25% down from peak. I'm optimistic the market will turn around in the next 12-24 months, leaving me with some handsome appreciation I would not have otherwise seen.

I’m almost to my 5th anniversary at a FAANG so my base has grown a bit this year but my stock award refreshers are pretty anemic. With the stock downturn it’s barely worth much. The CEO was asked if the company planned to make up for the downturn and he fumbled through a non-answer pretty hard.

I’m working on some interesting stuff in a fairly specialized niche inside a well resourced part of the company. So I’m consciously making a trade off of falling behind on total comp but working on something I enjoy and hopefully staying employed through a downturn.

My companies stock has fallen nearly 50% from it's peak this year. Leadership originally told me they wouldn't do anything when I pointed out average rent (I am single) was rising over half my paycheck and that my stocks had fallen greatly. I went all the way to HR with it, even demonstrating that under these conditions their new target software engineer was required to be married to another high income earner in both the Bay and San Diego. HR could do nothing. Eventually we had a town hall with hundreds of complaints, sometime later the CEO sent out an email saying they were raising our salaries 20% (which is still nowhere near market) across the entire company rather than addressing issues in specific markets. I'm turning in my notice after my bonus period and accepted a position with a substantial increase in base, stocks, and bonus pool. The position is also remote, which is another thing my current company told me will never happen.

I don't consider RSUs to be monetary compensation that's guaranteed; I see them more like the bonus that's written into my contract. Thus, my evaluation of pay is based pretty much on base salary. Has the bonus via RSUs taken a hit? Yes. Am I still earning well above the national average? Yes, about 2.5x. Could I find another job that would increase the base salary? Eh, maybe, maybe not. I haven't job hunted for over a decade now (which goes against the general HN view on job tenure), because I don't need to earn more than I currently do - I have a job that I'm comfortable in, and do things I enjoy with autonomy.

The flip - as shares increase, are they then supposed to remove compensation?

The short answer is no.

I joined my company last year when the stock was at an all time high and at the current price my total comp has dropped about 15%.

I asked whether they planned to make up for this, and the response from HR was essentially that it's tough luck.

I totally understand, that's how the stock market works, but it has definitely accelerated my plans to start looking around elsewhere (which would probably have happened anyway, it's not quite the right place for me). That said, I don't know what the actual refresher amount will be so it might be that it balances out somewhat.

Mine's gone down to $0 (laid off yesterday).

Mine is down about 25% so quite a bit. That said I made 7 figures last year so it’s not as if I’m struggling.

That's kind of the point of stock being part of TC isn't it?

I was never compensated in stock, but I did get a 5.6% raise. Exciting I know. WOOO!!!!!

My compensation is hot garbage compared to a top tech company, but the work is really fun, so there's that! Like seriously, there are some top tech companies doing some really cool side projects, but the vast majority of their jobs aren't as cool. And the base salary is.. surprisingly comparable.

It depends on how you count it and how you receive stock compensation? My not yet vested shares have gone down quite a bit. On that angle, I guess you can say your total compensation will drop since the shares that vest this year will be worth less.

If you look at your yearly grants + cash, then I expect it to stay the same for most people. Many equity plans grant a percentage of your cash compensation as stock.

Personally, I am somewhat dismayed when I see smaller numbers, but I am also looking forward to an opportunity to get many more shares at a good price.

Actually because of the vagaries of my four year offer and timing, it actually went up by $10K this calendar year. But if the stock doesn’t rebound or I don’t get a raise. It will go down next year.

I started working at my current company in mid 2020. Most of my compensation for the first two years were cash (base + prorated signing bonus) and I didn’t get any real amount of stock until earlier this month and for the next two years.

Yes I know, how do you say which BigTech company you work for without saying which company you work for

I started working at Oracle nearly a decade ago, after the stock had gone up significantly. After this peak, the stock was not really expected to go up much in the next couple years. Around that time, they started giving employees a choice between options and RSUs. The thinking was that options are worthless if the strike price isn't hit, whereas RSUs can drop in value but not to zero.

If they're not doing so already, I imagine other employers will start offering RSUs as well.

Maybe a silly question but how are Netflix employees faring with this change? I know that Netflix is famous for paying 99% cash. How does that work when the stock crashes 80%?

Yes.

Employer isn’t doing anything to correct it.

Actively interviewing as I wait for RSU cliff,

If things have now stabilized, my TC for 2022 will be down about 25% from what it would have been if our stock price stayed flat at the Jan 1 price. It'll still be over 50% higher than what it would have been if our stock stayed flat over the last four years and my refreshes were all the same size in dollars.

Yes, total comp decreased by about 20%.

They did try to make it right: I got a merit base salary increase of about 9%, and the company gave a top up RSU grant when they usually do stock refreshers once annually. I appreciated that, but this wasn't enough to make up for the stock crashing hard. I'm pushing hard for a promotion to try and somewhat make up for it.

When I started working here I thought of RSUs as a casino and never counted on them for living expenses, but they've become such a huge part of my total comp that it still stings mentally a bit. I'm still very well paid, but we have some big expenses coming up around trying for kids. With inflation we're trying to budget a little tighter to ensure that our plans go smoothly.

When I was at Amazon I asked about this but in relation to the dotcom bust and if memory serves me right, they did a one-time top up for everyone who was massively down due to "x% salary SBC" as the x while variable, formed a decent part of people's living expenses.

TC included RSUs this year, with a fixed-dollar conversion for the quarter after grant - $XYZ dollars, to be divided by trailing N-day stock price on $date and granted as RSUs. Roughly, grant ended up at $5 conversion rate, by the time we could sell it was $4, and now it's $2. So $100k in comp is currently selling for $40k.

I haven't heard anything about an adjustment or the possibility of additional grants. For now I'm more concerned that we're approaching break-even on my ISO valuation from 2+ years ago, after a 52-week high (during trade blackout) that would've given me Dos Commas status.

Yes, down 30% from my original offer TC from about a year ago. Meanwhile, new hires are getting offers 15% higher than my original offer. I’ll likely leave this year unless the company does something about it.

Yeah, total comp down by 20-30% depending on how you define the "before" value of the stock (somewhat complicated by a refresher after the stock had lost some value but before recent lows). Still ~10% better than my other offers at the time I took this position and ~50% better than my previous employer, though.

Around the end of 2021, I got a new job and negotiated a big salary bump for a startup on the basis of my total comp and not base. It wasn't a huge raise total comp-wise (excluding options), but it was all cash./

The company I left tanked recently (more than the market).

Thank goodness I did what I did lol.

I get ~15% of my salary in vested stock as a bonus (on top of my cash bonus) and it's actually gone up almost 50% in value since Feb.

My 401k has lost 25% of its value this year though, so it's hard to feel happy about the gain from my bonus.

It’s a tax benefit, in a way. I live and work in Switzerland, here the tax is paid on vesting. So, if stocks are down when vested it’s beneficial for my tax bill. I don’t mind waiting a year or more for them to go up again.

Yes, about 15% less. On the other hand I got promoted and my promo stock was valued near the bottom from last year. When the market recovers I expect my upside will be larger than the loss, overall.

It's never actually money until you take it off the table and bank it as dollars accepted as legal tender for the majority of goods and services - many a slip twixt the cup and the lip...

One of my bonuses went down 40%, but TC only down 5-7%. Not so much for the stock market downturn, though (maybe 20% of that 40%). I will survive, deeply irritated, but still breathing.

I work for a privately held company so, no, our valuation (if you believe it) has not dropped and so neither has the paper value of my equity compensation.

"Lost" about 70% of my TC (~1M to ~300k).

High growth company with stock down 90% since the high end of 2021