Find out what kind of shares these are: common shares, or preferred? In other words, do you get some kind of voting rights? And if they do, does it matter? It doesn't, if the CEO (or any single person/entity) owns more than 50% of the voting stock.
Are you really getting shares? It sounds like there might be a 5-year vesting schedule, so really you're getting restricted stock units: no voting rights at all until they vest. So you'd have nothing for at least a year.
More importantly, though: you say you're ready for something new. This sounds like you're getting 5 more years of the same thing. If you didn't explain yourself to your CEO, shame on you, but if you did, this means your CEO isn't listening to what you're saying, and you've been there almost 6 years. That's a good reason to get out just by itself.
Me: Here's your document. I worked many long hours on it, and it is beautiful.
Client: I can't read it. What is xlsx?
Me: It's the newest, bestest format. And the document is beautiful. I worked many long hours on it.
Client: I can't read it. I have MS Office 2003.
Me: Please go to Microsoft's site and download this software. Then install it. Then reboot your computer. Then you will see how beautiful my spreadsheet is. I worked many long hours making it beautiful.
Client: reboot?
Me:
From this sample interchange, we can see how pointless it is to expect one's client to adapt. Or RTFM. Or appreciate hard work. Unless, that is, they can open the file you produce with a single click.
$150 per computer is the add-on price when you buy a new Dell. That gets you Microsoft Office 2007 Basic, which includes Excel, Word, and Outlook. If you want PowerPoint and Publisher, that's $280. If you have to have Office Pro, which adds Access, that's $399. But I think most Office users really only need word processing, spreadsheets, and e-mail. Certain professionals will need to create PPTs, but not as many as you'd think (most people just need to view PPT). So $150 per computer is a reasonable price for most users (that would include you, since you just need a document to show for your time).
I agree that "whatever I'm given" is an excellent standard, since it usually means you'll be given what everyone else was given, and that's a good start toward ensuring that everyone can read each others' documents.
Long: I work in an environment in which we have a mix of OO.O users (typically on Mac OS X Leopard) and MS Office users (a combination of Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista, and Windows XP in virtual and native environments). Those of us using MS Office have no trouble with document interchange, except when it comes to the XML vs. binary file formats (older MS office users can't read/open the.xlsx or.docx formats, for example).
Folks on OO.O wind up corrupting files on a regular basis. I'll create a document, send it to an OO.O users for comment, and get back a document with a blue background... that the OO.o user doesn't know was there, and can't figure out how to remove.
Retraining habits is one thing, but with OO.O you have to settle for a buggy system that can corrupt your files. Small businesses often work for large businesses, and the file interchange with my clients has to be seamless. I had better luck with Apple's iWork than I do with OO.O, but have given up on both in favor of MS Office.
This is a pretty easy business decision. MS Office is $150, and it works. OO.O is free, but I have to spend a couple hours of my time in any given month dealing with some headache it presents. So that means that MS Office is actually cheaper that OO.O.
Hear that OO.O? Come up with software that works well, and I'll jettison MS Office. And so will lots of other businesses.
There's an interesting discussion thread on the Ask ET section of the Edward Tufte web site that starts with the Nightingale charts.
Note that the thread started in March of 2002. I'm not sure why this is making headlines now.
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Find out what kind of shares these are: common shares, or preferred? In other words, do you get some kind of voting rights? And if they do, does it matter? It doesn't, if the CEO (or any single person/entity) owns more than 50% of the voting stock.
Are you really getting shares? It sounds like there might be a 5-year vesting schedule, so really you're getting restricted stock units: no voting rights at all until they vest. So you'd have nothing for at least a year.
More importantly, though: you say you're ready for something new. This sounds like you're getting 5 more years of the same thing. If you didn't explain yourself to your CEO, shame on you, but if you did, this means your CEO isn't listening to what you're saying, and you've been there almost 6 years. That's a good reason to get out just by itself.
Me: Here's your document. I worked many long hours on it, and it is beautiful.
Client: I can't read it. What is xlsx?
Me: It's the newest, bestest format. And the document is beautiful. I worked many long hours on it.
Client: I can't read it. I have MS Office 2003.
Me: Please go to Microsoft's site and download this software. Then install it. Then reboot your computer. Then you will see how beautiful my spreadsheet is. I worked many long hours making it beautiful.
Client: reboot?
Me:
From this sample interchange, we can see how pointless it is to expect one's client to adapt. Or RTFM. Or appreciate hard work. Unless, that is, they can open the file you produce with a single click.
$150 per computer is the add-on price when you buy a new Dell. That gets you Microsoft Office 2007 Basic, which includes Excel, Word, and Outlook. If you want PowerPoint and Publisher, that's $280. If you have to have Office Pro, which adds Access, that's $399. But I think most Office users really only need word processing, spreadsheets, and e-mail. Certain professionals will need to create PPTs, but not as many as you'd think (most people just need to view PPT). So $150 per computer is a reasonable price for most users (that would include you, since you just need a document to show for your time).
I agree that "whatever I'm given" is an excellent standard, since it usually means you'll be given what everyone else was given, and that's a good start toward ensuring that everyone can read each others' documents.
Short: Actually, no.
Medium: Really, I mean it, you're wrong.
Long: I work in an environment in which we have a mix of OO.O users (typically on Mac OS X Leopard) and MS Office users (a combination of Mac OS X Leopard, Windows Vista, and Windows XP in virtual and native environments). Those of us using MS Office have no trouble with document interchange, except when it comes to the XML vs. binary file formats (older MS office users can't read/open the .xlsx or .docx formats, for example).
Folks on OO.O wind up corrupting files on a regular basis. I'll create a document, send it to an OO.O users for comment, and get back a document with a blue background ... that the OO.o user doesn't know was there, and can't figure out how to remove.
Retraining habits is one thing, but with OO.O you have to settle for a buggy system that can corrupt your files. Small businesses often work for large businesses, and the file interchange with my clients has to be seamless. I had better luck with Apple's iWork than I do with OO.O, but have given up on both in favor of MS Office.
This is a pretty easy business decision. MS Office is $150, and it works. OO.O is free, but I have to spend a couple hours of my time in any given month dealing with some headache it presents. So that means that MS Office is actually cheaper that OO.O.
Hear that OO.O? Come up with software that works well, and I'll jettison MS Office. And so will lots of other businesses.
There's an interesting discussion thread on the Ask ET section of the Edward Tufte web site that starts with the Nightingale charts. Note that the thread started in March of 2002. I'm not sure why this is making headlines now.