Tech start-ups that have delayed plans to go public during an industry downturn are facing a new dilemma: how to deal with restive employees whose share awards are set to expire without a blockbuster initial public offering on the horizon. “There is pent-up pressure among employees who had been promised an IPO in 2021 or ’22, but are now saying ‘RSUs don’t pay my mortgage or my kids’ college fund’,” said Cisco Palao-Ricketts, ERISA & Executive Compensation partner, to Financial Times. “We try to guide only late-stage companies to do RSUs,” said Palao-Ricketts. “For companies that adopted RSUs too early or haven’t been successful enough to have that liquidity event yet, this is something that is coming down the pipeline in two or three years.”