Among other things, this means that employee options would still be above water. Rather more motivating than underwater options after years of death-march hours.
No, the strike likely isn't 38. But downward valuation on stocks or options decreases their value.
If options were granted (and apparently this isn't the case at FB, see the RSU comment -- restricted stock units), then there would be _some_ strike value. Often shares are granted at some price as well (though it's frequently at some nominal "par" value, typical $0.01).
With options, it's possible for employees to end up with no value at all. In some cases, companies have re-issued "above-water" grants, though this has been frowned on in recent years.
With stock, again, you have the situation of sitting on, say, a few hundred or thousand shares, and watching your paper worth drop from $40k to $20k to .... Now, according to Zuck, that's not cool money, but to your typical Valley engineer, it's still plenty green, and hurts to see it wash away.
Among other things, this means that employee options would still be above water. Rather more motivating than underwater options after years of death-march hours.