At FAANG you typically get RSU new hire grant and then annual RSU refreshers. And you are right that companies do not renew initial hire RSUs grant.
However you will only hit salary cliff if your initial grant was bigger than what would be your annual refresher at the end of year 4 at company (both initial RSUs and annual refreshers vest over 4 years). If your annual refresher is same as your initial grant your salary will not increase that year (which you might still consider not great, because until now your salary was increasing every year due to RSU refreshers).
> Even if they did, that would be less than what that employee is paid when the initial grant expired, or what they could make by moving jobs (since they’re now 4-5 years more senior).
If employee became more senior that would mean they got promotions (base salary increase in double digits, bonus increases) and their annual refreshers are much bigger now (they almost double between levels [1]).
If they did not get promotion over past 4-5 years (that's only possible for senior roles, grad and junior levels need to get promotion in certain time frame otherwise they are out) there's quite low probability they would get hired to more senior role at other FAANG (though they might be offered big initial RSU offer)
> More cynically, it might be political. If only a few cherry picked employees stay, and all the other organizational memory walks out the door every 4-5 years, then all the organizational power eventually accumulates in middle management.
Same salary rules apply to management, so they could also walk out if they hit salary cliff. However if you are manager/director/VP you will be higher level and your annual refresher might be high enough to keep you there.
> Even if they did, that would be less than what that employee is paid when the initial grant expired, or what they could make by moving jobs (since they’re now 4-5 years more senior). If employee became more senior that would mean they got promotions (base salary increase in double digits, bonus increases) and their annual refreshers are much bigger now (they almost double between levels [1]). If they did not get promotion over past 4-5 years (that's only possible for senior roles, grad and junior levels need to get promotion in certain time frame otherwise they are out) there's quite low probability they would get hired to more senior role at other FAANG (though they might be offered big initial RSU offer)
> More cynically, it might be political. If only a few cherry picked employees stay, and all the other organizational memory walks out the door every 4-5 years, then all the organizational power eventually accumulates in middle management. Same salary rules apply to management, so they could also walk out if they hit salary cliff. However if you are manager/director/VP you will be higher level and your annual refresher might be high enough to keep you there.
[1] https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-range-of-the-RSU-stock-ref...