I have been looking at the data available on options exercised and expired and have noted that there were a whole slew (426,000) of options having only .30 years of life left at the time of the statements which had a weighted average price of $3.24 I presume tht those have now been the ones which expired  without being exercised since it would have been cheaper to buy any quantity in the open market.

I also note that there have been a number of options which must have been having more than a year of life left, which were exercised by employees.

A good strategy for employees who have a firm belief that a major increase in value is likely coming in the market, in my opinion, is to exercise the options at a time when the market price is low in order to be paying taxes on employment income of as low as possible before any forseen news breaks. That tax is based on the difference between the exercise price and the then market price.

If that is done one is then subject to capital gains tax only on the price increase of the market value when sold in future over the price at the time of exercise. Of course one does not need to sell if one believes that future dividends or other income will likely be coming

Of course many employees are not large risk takers and often have fears of loss in value of what they have in fact invested in real dollars once they exercise their options. Many advisors tell them to sell at least enough of their new shares to pay the tax. Taking risks of course is how one makes money