Now that we see Crown Castle is going to weasel out on the RSUs for the 20% of people they are laying off tomorrow, it made me wonder about this corporate squeeze-play they are doing with RSUs for those in the perimeter.
I’ve been a project manager long enough to know when a project plan has a massive hole in it. Right now, the company is spinning this "retention incentive" like they’re doing us a favor. But look at the math: they are accelerating what we already earned from last year, while completely cutting us out of the 2026 LTI grant.
There are over half of us moving to Zayo or EQT. That means over half the company just got hit with a massive compensation gap while those remaining get the full bag.
For those of us in the field, those RSUs are a huge part of our total pay. If you take that away, it’s basically a constructive pay cut.
A few things that don’t sit right:
- The SEC filings say the company has to operate in the "ordinary course of business" until the deal closes. Skipping a standard annual grant for a couple thousand people doesn’t sound like "ordinary course" to me. It sounds like a budget hack to make the books look better for the buyers.
- Does this trigger "Good Reason" for us having a material reduction in compensation is grounds to walk with full severance.
- We already saw the Byler v. Crown Castle class action pay out for the California crew. Do they really want 2,000 more of us filing a bad faith suit while they’re trying to close a multi-billion dollar deal?
Accelerating my old money doesn't make up for stealing my new money. If Zayo isn't putting a "bridge grant" in our offer letters, Crown Castle is leaving us high and dry.
Time to stop being "Castle Casualties" and start asking questions about our rights, too.