Went through the Twilio IPO, I can give feedback based on my experience. IANAL and all that.
1. I've never heard of that from a tech company IPO. Twilio did sell-to-cover fwiw.
2. Does your RSU contract/letter say something about that? I'd maybe check with a lawyer and see if they can even do that. I would have imagined that in this scenario, the company gives you the RSUs and leaves you to figure out paying the IRS yourself.
3. That sounds absurd, I never had to do that. Tech companies that reach IPO typically have an HR department that handles all this for you, but I mean yours clearly doesn't I guess. I don't know what, if any, obligation employers actually have legally in this regard. Again, I'd check with a lawyer.
4. Hmm, I was a current employee during my IPO experience, so don't know how former employees were handled. I'm guessing though that they were also given sell-to-cover option. I'm pretty sure the stock broker the company used (I think it was ETrade) just handled all that for the company, including showing us how much was sold to cover as things vested, and locking current employees during quiet periods.
Good luck, hope that helps a bit in terms of at least validating your sanity that this probably isn't normal.
1. I've never heard of that from a tech company IPO. Twilio did sell-to-cover fwiw.
2. Does your RSU contract/letter say something about that? I'd maybe check with a lawyer and see if they can even do that. I would have imagined that in this scenario, the company gives you the RSUs and leaves you to figure out paying the IRS yourself.
3. That sounds absurd, I never had to do that. Tech companies that reach IPO typically have an HR department that handles all this for you, but I mean yours clearly doesn't I guess. I don't know what, if any, obligation employers actually have legally in this regard. Again, I'd check with a lawyer.
4. Hmm, I was a current employee during my IPO experience, so don't know how former employees were handled. I'm guessing though that they were also given sell-to-cover option. I'm pretty sure the stock broker the company used (I think it was ETrade) just handled all that for the company, including showing us how much was sold to cover as things vested, and locking current employees during quiet periods.
Good luck, hope that helps a bit in terms of at least validating your sanity that this probably isn't normal.