In a sense yeah. The share option agreements I've seen haven't provided a way to flip the options into proper shares in the company that are under my name.

So the company boasts to me that I have "stock" in the company - I am a "owner" when in reality I'm not at all. I find it disingenuous.

Unless I'm completely misunderstanding this - I can never get a clear answer on any of this stuff.

You seem confused. Private companies don't have any liquid stock to give. Options aren't the issue, just subtract salary minus share price and taxes to get net.

How am I confused? Get net of what?

My point is that local start-ups are misrepresenting share options as "stock" in the company, telling me I have ownership when in fact I do not.

And they use this notion that I am a "owner" to extract far more then the 40 hours per week I'm contracted to do (it's "start-up culture" after all). I like the work and problems that start-up's tend to focus on, but the way it gets represented here is a joke to professionals.