Let this be a reminder that the market could not care less about things such as ethics or keeping your employees happy and productive. Or the environment, or following laws, or anything else. It only cares about current and future numbers. You, as an employee, are a number - and a not very important one.

If anything, the stock price tends to go up when a company announces layoffs(sometimes even if what prompted that was financial distress).

The Borg Collective could go IPO on "Assimilation Enterprises Inc" and it would likely have an outstanding valuation.

When making financial decisions, it's one thing to vote with your wallet. It's another thing to not want to 'invest' in a company because they wronged you in some way. It was a business transaction to them, it should be a business transaction to you.

I get that the author had all reasons to think the company would go under (high churn for one, competition, etc), which would make his options worthless if that were the case.

Ultimately though, he got offered a bunch of options for a small price. There are drawbacks to exercising them, as he pointed out. But the way he was personally treated should not have factored in his decision.

I hope he bought bitcoins in 2017, at least.