The initial 4 year schedule is largely irrelevant, considering high performers get large refreshers.

And even those who receive just a standard "Meets Expectations" rating receive sufficient refreshers that there isn't that big a cliff after four years either. It may go from something like $500k to $450k.

There's a lot of jumping around at the 3-year mark, especially for people who want to cash in their FAANG brand for a similar package somewhere else. But once you get to E5 and higher there is significant financial incentive to stay with FB for longer than the initial four years.

For an E5 you get ~600k initial grant and 120k refresher for meets all. So your equity comp goes Year 1: 150k Year 2: 180k Year 3: 210k Year 4: 240k Year 5: 120k

That’s a pretty big drop. It’s less if you have higher ratings or promo of course.

not true. people usually have a large cliff after four years where their compensation goes down. because they ir initial grant is no longer vesting so they go from:

initial grant / 4 + (refreshers x 3) per year

to:

refreshers x 4 per year

in addition, refreshers are given at the current stock price whereas the initial was grant was given at the 4 years ago price which was much lower therefore appreciated considerably