Potential of shares but leaving company

[Sweetpea1989]

The company that I work for intend float for the first time this year - I know staff will get shares.

I plan on leaving the company - I have worked for the company for 8 years there are now about 600 staff members and I am not in a management position.

Just checking I'm not risking missing out on a life changing amount of money?

I am dissatisfied with my job and want further challenges they cannot offer.

Sorry if my language is clumsy I know absolutely nothing about shares.

It's an unknown, no one can predict how well the shares will do, what period if any you'll be tied in for etc.
Do you have any more info?

Generally when shares are given to employees there are restrictions.

My company give free shares as part of a profit share but you cannot sell the shares for 3 years (tax reasons) and you must be an employee at the point when the shares are sellable. If you leave the company for general reasons (some exceptions apply like redundancy) then you're permitted to keep the shares but still have to wait 3 years to sell them.

I'd be surprised if your company didn't impose similar conditions. If you're that unhappy I'd focus on getting another job rather than worrying about what might/might not happen with shares for employees at your current place.

Thanks that was my general gut feeling that there would be restrictions which would make me tied to the company. I presumed over 1 year - but 3 years is a really long time to be feeling stuck with lack of progression and not worth it.

You're welcome. That being said though I have no experience of what the rules are for a company that's preparing to float on the stock market. It might be worth hanging on for a little while just to see what the conditions are.

If you can see the T&Cs exclude you being able to profit from the shares in a timeframe that works for you then you've only wasted a month or two waiting to see. You can use that time wisely to get your CV polished and start scoping out potential new jobs and the sort of cover letters you'd need to write to apply for them.

My husband’s company went through this.

he says it depends on seniority (as in position, not time in the company)

directors/board members usually get minimum of 2 years.

but if you get a few thousand worth of shares, you could be able to sell straight away.

one of the reasons for this is because, you selling your shares won’t have much impact on the market and won’t send any bad signals.

might be worth sticking out until it happens.

If it was me I would stick it out for longer until more info is available. Per PP, definitely possible that non-management will have no restrictions and can sell straight away.