Employee Stock Purchase Plan, a good idea ?

Most publicly traded companies offer some form of Stock purchase plan. You can get the shares of your own company at a discount price. There are usually some rules about 1) amount you are able to purchase and 2) not being able to dump the stock right away.

Companies tout this as a way of employees building equity in the company. The 'grunts' become not only workers, but 'shareholders' as well, and some how strive to perform better to avoid losing money. I will not speculate on the correctness of these assumptions, but:

To me investing into the stock of where you work seems like a bad idea:

• If the company does well, you'll get a piece of it anyway through bonuses, perks, etc
• If the company does poorly, you don't get a bonus and you lose money to the company. You also realize you gave back a portion of your paycheck back to your employer for no reason.

Unless you are hedging you employee stock purchase with the purchase of a competitor/different sector/etc, it doesn't seem like a safe investment.