I was wondering about a similar, but different mechanism. There's a pool of shares that are effectively rented for free to employees, and part of their pay is the dividend they get. When you join, you get them for free (maybe there's some vesting schedule), when you leave they go away, not as a sale but just for free again.

Soo... It's not like you're always inflating your share base with options. Just part of what people are paid is basically same as shareholders.

This isn't some "align with shareholders" bullshit, rather I wonder if it somewhat decreased the myopic perspective of an employee. They get paid off of the success of the whole company, they have an interest in prudent cost management, and so on. They get to vote on issues affecting the whole firm, too - collectively maybe they are 5-10% or whatnot, not lots but enough that they have a voice.

Otherwise, there is a prevalent, and sadly reasonable perspective of extreme cynicism towards an employer. The employer always says how we're all in it together, teamwork etc. but really, every employee is best served by entirely optimizing only their own utility. But surely this can't be optimal at the society level.