I once worked for a start up that got taken over. In the process all retained staff lost their options.

I don’t think the options were really worth that much so I guess we were supposed to just be happy we still had our jobs.

The pettiness of it though just sucked the life out of the work for me. I found it very hard to concentrate and very hard to give a shit about anything after that.

It’s a massive indicator that it’s time to move on.