Are you creating something that you yourself or the other workers collectively own? Like, not just options, because that’s another way to get fucked over later when the company gets sold for pennies on the dollar.

Because when my company got bought out by Microsoft about four years of my work got thrown in the trashcan. Not really fun spending four years working on something that gets shelved because Microsoft decided it would be better to prevent our product from going to market than be our customer.

That shit is only meaningful if you are actually making something you have control over. Don’t kill yourself in a job that will drop you to do more stock buybacks. Jobs are for collecting a paycheck. That’s all you’re ever “creating” for yourself.

Remember that. You have no say in whether the product of your labor gets used or thrown in the trash for no reason. In most cases, you are making something that will be owned as a commodity by someone else that doesn’t even know you exist. Hell, they likely don’t even know the thing you’re making exists.

Put in as much as you’re willing to put in to keep the paycheck coming. Nothing more.