WeWork’s 17th employee: I was not offered options
Her personal story aside, which I can imagine must feel a bit bitter, I am of the opinion that equity should only ever be given to employees who have a crucial and direct impact on the success of a business. If I join as a COO into an early startup then I take risks, play a crucial role in it&#x27;s evolution and therefore deserve some equity to incentivise the best performance I can do. However, if I&#x27;m an account, even if I&#x27;m employee no 2 I would never expect equity. Doing accounts is not crucial and has nothing to do with the actual startup itself. If they pay a normal salary for an accountant then any accountant could just take that job and replace me. Why should the business owners who must have taken huge risks themselves ever give a piece of their hard earned cake to an accountant? Doesn&#x27;t make sense, they get a fair salary for their work and that is all they deserve.<p>So there&#x27;s always two sides to everything. Not everyone always deserves what others have. That&#x27;s a common misconception today where everyone looks for reasons to claim how they&#x27;ve been treated unfairly.<p>EDIT:<p>Before more people jump at my throat, I want to clarify that I am not talking about not compensating employees well because of a stupid reason like they can get replaced or something. That&#x27;s not at all what I&#x27;m saying and I thought that was pretty clear. EVERYONE should get a great salary and great work&#x2F;life perks, BUT when it comes <i>specifically</i> to giving away OWNERSHIP of one&#x27;s business, then IMHO <i>just being a great employee</i> is not reason enough. I just don&#x27;t think that everyone should own some % of a company just for rocking up every day and being nice to their colleagues. That&#x27;s all.. if you disagree with that, then fair enough, but then say that, and don&#x27;t try to teach me that people should get compensated well, because I never said otherwise.