My wife worked for a small credit card processing company during lockdown. They came to her and every employee and made two offers. 1) 10% paycut in exchange for 1000 stock shared or 2) 20% paycut for 2000 shares. The paycut was supposed last less than 6 months and no one would have to get laid off. Of course both were lies. The company also posted it's highest earnings ever during the time.
Fast forward almost a year, my wife found a new job while on maternity leave with our second gremlin. We asked about the stock and they gave some bullshit answer why we couldnt cash out the 2000 shares. Anyway we kept the pressure on for awhile but eventually moved on. the other employees kept at it though.
Last week we got a notification that her stock was available through some thing called Carta. And behold! 2000 shares worth a penny each. 20 bucks for cutting her pay for a year.