There are employment benefits like discounted share options for people working in listed companies. I think it's a great option to buy such discounted shares since they do add up to a substantively, especially when there's not a lot of restrictions on selling. The point is that if you offer employee shares of the company they are working in, they will be more aligned to perform better since they are all stakeholders and shareholders. But that's the problem. I think it's a case of putting all your eggs in one basket. When all goes well, everyone benefits. But if things go bad, you might end up with a really bad case of rotten eggs. All companies are safe and good - until they aren't. Enron is a classic textbook example. Enron employees lose both their job as well as their financial assets in the form of pension when Enron crashed ......