Evergreen guide: How RSUs, stock price volatility and equity vesting policies affect engineers and product people at public SaaS companies

What RSUs actually are, and why the mechanics matter

Equity at public SaaS companies is not a bonus. It is a structured, time-locked portion of your total compensation that behaves very differently from cash, and understanding the difference is the first practical step to managing it well.

Restricted stock units (RSUs) are grants of company stock that vest over a scheduled period, most commonly four years with a one-year cliff. That cliff means nothing vests at month one, two, or eleven; the first tranche typically unlocks at the twelve-month mark, with the remainder releasing quarterly or annually afterward. Vesting is contingent on continued employment and the specific terms of your award agreement, so the actual mechanics vary by grant and by role. Stock options, the other common equity vehicle in SaaS compensation, give you the right to purchase shares at a fixed strike price set on your grant date. Monday.com's own SEC filings show option exercise prices ranging from $9.38 to $211.78 depending on when grants were issued, a spread that reflects just how dramatically the company's valuation has moved over the past several years.

When RSUs vest, they become taxable as ordinary income in most jurisdictions, calculated at the fair market value of the stock on the vest date. That tax event happens whether or not you sell a single share. Companies typically offer mechanisms to manage this: cashless sell programs, payroll withholding, or sell-to-cover arrangements where a portion of vesting shares is automatically sold to fund the tax liability. Knowing which mechanism your employer uses, and when it triggers, is not optional financial knowledge. It is basic personal finance for anyone with meaningful equity exposure.

The MNDY context: what a 85% peak-to-trough move actually means

MNDY reached its all-time high of $450 on November 9, 2021, at the height of SaaS market euphoria. By March 27, 2026, it had fallen to an all-time low of $66.26, a decline that erased the majority of that peak valuation. The stock currently carries a beta of 1.63, meaning it moves roughly 63% more than the broader market in either direction on any given day. That is not abstract volatility; it is the lived experience of watching a grant that looked like a meaningful financial milestone at offer time shrink substantially before it has even vested.

This is not unique to Monday.com. The entire SaaS sector repriced sharply from 2022 onward as interest rates rose and growth-at-any-cost multiples collapsed. But the MNDY trajectory is a useful case study precisely because it is so stark. An engineer who joined in late 2021, attracted in part by a competitive equity grant priced near that $450 peak, has been holding RSUs that vest into a stock trading at a fraction of what it was worth when they signed their offer letter.

Four financial realities to understand before your next vest date

The research surfaces four specific dynamics that every equity-holding employee should internalize.

First, notional value is not realized value. The number on your equity dashboard reflects the current stock price multiplied by your unvested shares. It is not money in your account. It becomes money only when shares vest, are sold, and clear. Until then, a 20% single-day move, which MNDY has experienced, changes that number dramatically without changing your actual cash position.

Second, the relative weight of equity in your total compensation shifts constantly with price. If RSUs represent 40% of your target annual compensation at grant, and the stock drops by half, equity's real contribution to your pay has dropped too. This directly affects the calculus of whether to stay, accept a competing offer, or negotiate a refresh grant. Refresh grants, additional RSU awards given to retain employees between major grant cycles, exist precisely because companies know this math.

Third, tax timing creates real cash-flow risk. RSUs vest and generate a tax liability at vest-date fair market value, regardless of what the stock does afterward. An employee whose shares vest at $100 and then drop to $70 over the following month still owes tax on the $100 valuation. Sell-to-cover programs reduce this exposure but do not eliminate it, and employees who hold vested shares without a clear plan can find themselves underprepared for a supplemental tax bill.

Fourth, volatility affects behavior before it affects finances. Public litigation headlines, earnings guidance misses, or strategic pivots toward AI create uncertainty about the company's trajectory. That uncertainty, even when the business fundamentals remain solid, tends to increase turnover risk among exactly the high performers who have the most options.

Practical steps worth taking now

These are not abstract financial planning recommendations. They are specific actions tied to the actual mechanics of public SaaS equity.

• Read your grant documents: Know your exact vest dates, whether any grants have performance conditions attached, what happens to unvested shares if you leave voluntarily versus involuntarily, and whether any change-of-control provisions apply.

• Plan for the tax event before it happens: If your employer uses sell-to-cover, understand what percentage of vesting shares will be sold and whether that fully covers your withholding. If it does not, set aside supplemental funds in advance.

• Understand blackout periods and trading windows: Public company employees are subject to insider trading policies that restrict when they can sell shares. Blackout periods typically fall around earnings releases. If your vest date falls inside a blackout window, you may not be able to immediately sell, which adds price risk to the tax timing risk already described.

• Talk to a financial advisor about concentration: Holding significant equity in the company you work for means both your paycheck and your investment portfolio depend on the same outcome. A staged diversification plan, built around open trading windows, reduces that exposure without requiring a single dramatic decision.

• Use internal resources: Stock plan administrators, People Ops teams, and internal financial education sessions exist for this reason. Monday.com and companies like it typically provide calculators for tax events and dedicated contact points for equity questions. Using them is not a sign of confusion; it is exactly what they are there for.

What managers and leaders need to do differently

The case for transparent equity communication is not soft. It is a retention argument backed by straightforward financial logic.

When stock price falls sharply and internal communication is absent, employees fill the gap with LinkedIn threads, blind posts, and speculation. That information environment is worse for morale and retention than almost anything a frank internal briefing would say. Product leaders, engineering managers, and sales directors who understand equity mechanics can frame the conversation accurately: separating the long-term equity value thesis from short-term price volatility, explaining refresh grant timing honestly, and helping reports understand the real tradeoff between staying for unvested equity versus leaving for a competing offer with a new grant.

Practical employer-side support means financial education sessions before major vest dates, clear communication about blackout period timing, simple tax-event calculators that reflect the company's specific sell-to-cover structure, and predictable channels for employees to ask questions without stigma. For leaders building offers for senior engineering or product hires, understanding how candidates weigh base against equity, and how their risk tolerance shifts depending on where they are in a prior grant's vesting cycle, is table stakes for competitive recruiting in a market where every sophisticated candidate is running this math themselves.

The companies that treat equity literacy as a retention and culture investment, not just a legal compliance requirement, are the ones that come out of volatile periods with their best people still in place.