How have/can employee stock options in place of compensation be abused?

Question

I am trying to figure out the ways in which options can go wrong or ways in which they can be watered down, or other malicious patterns as many startups use stock options in place of compensation.

MrKitai · Accepted Answer

One day, 2 years ago, it was the day i was supposed to get the money from my stock options. More than 100.000€.
The day before, my 2 bosses called me for a meeting, and they told me they were going to transfer only 1/3 of that amount in stocks.
Why? No single reason other that they had no time to manage it, even though i asked 5 months before and i remembered them every week for a month before.
So i had to stay another year because they refused to give me the full amount.
Next year i went full legal mode and sent a burofax. No way to escape now, i got all my money.
By now, i've been the only one in my company to get money from our stock options plan.

RNeff · Answer

Big company buys your company. B.C. pays stated price per share for all shares, and all vested options. All unvested options disappear.

probably_wrong · Answer

You should try the search option here in HN, as similar questions have been asked before.I remember this article in particular making a big impact on me: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10811570

shoo · Answer

https://danluu.com/startup-options/