Just another instance on why an employee shouldn't consider stock options as adequate equivalent to compensation.
In theory, those employees were promised to receive x shares of the company that now (partly due to their personal performance) are worth some significant amount.
In fact, that was a lie and they are not actually able to receive that part of their compensation despite having been promised and earned it, vested, etc.
Beware of scams (the legal details cause similar sized of equity options to have extremely different de facto value) and/or treat the offered equity as having near-zero value when comparing compensation offers from different employers.
In theory, those employees were promised to receive x shares of the company that now (partly due to their personal performance) are worth some significant amount.
In fact, that was a lie and they are not actually able to receive that part of their compensation despite having been promised and earned it, vested, etc.
Beware of scams (the legal details cause similar sized of equity options to have extremely different de facto value) and/or treat the offered equity as having near-zero value when comparing compensation offers from different employers.