FYIFV (standing for "Fuck You, I'm Fully Vested") or FYIV[1] is a piece of early Microsoft jargon that has become an urban legend: that employees whose stock options were fully vested (that is, could be exercised) would occasionally wear T-shirts or buttons with the initials "FYIFV" to indicate they were sufficiently financially independent to give their honest opinions and leave any time they wished.
In internal usage at Microsoft, it was meant metaphorically to describe intransigent co-workers. In press usage and popular culture, it is often used to imply a predatory business culture reaching even to the programmers.
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Many Microsoft FTE employees were granted stock options at the start of their employment. The options vest gradually over four and a half years. An option allows the holder to buy the stock at a later date for the price at which the option was originally granted. Because Microsoft's stock price rose significantly between September 1986 and January 2000 and split 8 times in that period, an employee could buy the stock cheap and sell it at a considerable profit, thus reducing or removing their dependence on their Microsoft salary. Many stayed at Microsoft nevertheless because they enjoyed their work.
Adam Barr, author of the book Proudly Serving My Corporate Masters, tracked down a possible origin for the urban legend:
Barr notes also that further options are granted each year, thus an employee can never be "fully vested."
The first third-party note of the term appears to be by Paul Andrews in the Seattle Times in 1989, in the context of Microsoft as a place where hard work and long hours were expected and rewarded:[3]
| “ | Stock options during the company's early growth produced numerous wealthy sub-30-year-olds, and for a while buttons showed up on lapels bearing the inscription FYIFV, standing for "F--- You, I'm Fully Vested." | ” |
Andrews used the term again when coauthoring the book Gates with Stephen Manes in 1993.[4]
The quote became more common as Microsoft's fortunes rose, used with the implication that alleged predatory business attitudes reached even to the programmers:[5]
| “ | Accusations that Microsoft's people lie, cheat and steal information are as much a part of the company's lore as its cadre of millionaires with FYIFV ('.... I'm fully vested') buttons. | ” |
The phrase was also used with the implication that Microsoft employees were motivated only by money, rather than software quality, e.g. in a 2000 Wired article on United States v. Microsoft:[6]
| “ | For years, Softies were wont to sport buttons that read FYIFV: Fuck You, I'm Fully Vested. | ” |
Ken Barnes' Microsoft Lexicon notes also the term "QVD," or "Quietly Vesting Disease": the loss of enthusiasm of an employee as they approach or pass their vesting date.[1]