One ex-coworker mentioned some years after the 2001 #dotcom crash, that his 3 years at the startup wound up costing him $30k/year. Because he had been taxed on the nominal value of the #stock granted to him, even though the share price had collapsed before he had been able to sell.
Could be worse. Papers said some guy killed himself around then, freaked out about his imaginary wealth magically turning to devastating debt.
Maybe the law changed since?
Dunno. I'm a workaday joe now.