I've in fact always been afraid to vote my shares against the recommendations of the board. What if someone finds out and takes it personally? I need the job much more than I need any potential upside of the shares I own, so even if all the proposals amount to "let the executives steal whatever isn't nailed down", I figure I'm better off going along with it or just throwing my proxy card away.
Because of the implication. Yes. It's always better in aggregate if people fight back, in order to prevent the inevitable slide towards power consolidation, but it really requires leadership because it's frequently good for the group but bad for the individual, and it's the first through the wall who gets bloodied.
Are you talking about shares of the company you work for, or shares of random companies you have stocks of?
For the former, if at all possible, you should sell those, and invest in the general market: your job already gives you plenty of excess exposure to the fortunes of your employer, and your career gives you excess exposure to the general industry you are in. No need to concentrate your effective investments even more. Diversify.
For the latter: don't bother picking stocks as an individual investor. Just go with a low cost index fund (and they can vote the shares for you).
I mean shares in the company I work for. I don't /want/ to be heavily invested in it, but I get grants in the form of RSUs periodically, and also we have an ESPP which is essentially free money in that I get to buy shares at a discount. I get a better tax deal if I keep them at least a year after I buy the shares/exercise the RSUs, (long-term capital gains vs short-term capital gains). I absolutely sell them as soon as they are considered long-term but in the meantime I'm a shareholder and I could vote those shares if I wanted to.
I'm not sure why I would care about what the board/management of some /other/ public company (that I don't work for) thinks about my vote. Almost certainly they won't think about it at all.
