I’ve worked for two companies that had ESOPs while they were privately traded. In both cases, the companies were sold to larger corporate entities that promptly got rid of the ESOP.

Not that it is all that bad. One sale happened after I left the company. The sale of the company included the shares owned by employees through the ESOP. So for one sale, I got several tens of thousands of dollars (hadn’t been part of the ESOP that long) and the other company’s sale gave me about 150% of my current salary. Both went right into retirement accounts to defer taxes.

The mood or “culture” was better, I think, during the ESOP period. Certainly cost saving was more on everyone’s mind, because every company dollar unspent was part of the profit and increased the valuation.