"Reasons exist"
And absolutely none of them are valid. If you're going to have this person work on the core of your company, there is absolutely no reason to not be up front with them.
Re:Do the math on your stock options
by mpdehaan2 on Thursday December 31, 2015 @08:23PM
(#10820714)
It's quite valid and exists as a reason, you just don't agree with it :)
No, it's not valid. The only reason it would be done is for deceitful reasons. Therefore, not valid.
Keeping it private here means private from external companies that should not have access to that data, not employees. This includes competitors, M&A targets, and investors who have not yet invested and should not have access to the books.
I do however strongly believe in tempering expectations, it's wrong to try to retain people by thinking they have more than they do.
It's tricky to share that with employees and not have it get out.
That being said, if it were all public, I think that would be fine, I'm not sure what results that would cause if every company did that, and it might be cool if every company were required to by law (hint, hint, congress!).