Actually it did. He mentioned that "leveling up" is part of the culture, which I read as a passive/aggressive way for him to both mention and justify the clawbacks. "Those people just weren't able to level up."
a nice spin to get support of the majority of the employees against the supposedly unfair overcompensated "old guard" minority. Playing on the low instincts of people seems to be an art mastered by Pinkus.
Yes, but it probably will backfire now, with all the publicity. One Pinkus fail: acknowledging the bad press. He should take a page from politicians: deny, no comment, and deny.
Most of "the guys" will listen to the moderate voices, and will probably only join a suit if it's class-action.
As an aside, I think that you would have to look at the individual cases and determine what the circumstances were for each as from what I'm reading it wasn't a blanket clawback.
In the case of someone hired but who wasn't really as qualified as they represented themselves to during the interview process, then it would be understandable if they were summarily fired. No options, no nothing. Same would go for an individual who retired while still at the office. They're a cancer and you can't keep them around. I cannot see these types of people being reassigned. Oddly enough, some of those people are actually kept around, but that's another story.
But in the case of someone who was promoted to a level of responsibility beyond their capabilities, after working at the company for some time, I could see management clawing back those options and benefits given to them in addition to the ones they were originally at the time of their initial employment.
However, and if I'm understanding what is being written about Mr. Pincus, going after those options deemed excessive which were granted to early employees for the sole purpose of not having them participate in an equitable share of the profits of a stock sale, well, that's fraud. And Mr. Pincus had better hope that only a very minimal paper trail exists of those employee agreements. Very minimal.
Actually it did. He mentioned that "leveling up" is part of the culture, which I read as a passive/aggressive way for him to both mention and justify the clawbacks. "Those people just weren't able to level up."