Immediately after Microsoft Corp. unveiled a plan to allow its employees to cash in their options in company stock, senior Microsoft leaders met with the company's employees at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash.

The response at first was muted. Then, as the news sunk in that employees would be able to benefit from options they thought were worthless, the room erupted in cheers and applause.

But while there is joy in Redmond, employees at other companies holding piles of nearly drowned stock options may have little reason to cheer.

That is because companies that issue options generally have the final say over what employees will be allowed to do with their options. Without the blessing of their employer, workers basically have little choice but to hold on to their options and hope for the best.

While the Microsoft announcement could spur other companies to follow suit, many compensation experts say employees have little alternative for dealing with their underwater options before such copycat moves are made.

The whole point of issuing options -- which can be exercised and turned into stock at a later date -- is to tie employees' compensation to the success or failure of the company. "That's a perk, given to the employees for a job well done," said Jonathan Kahn of Castlebridge Risk Solutions, which helps develop hedging strategies for individuals. "If they go out and start hedging away their potential loss, how does that tie them to the company?"

In addition, giving employees a chance to bail out of their options runs the risk of angering shareholders, who have no such parachute.

Bruce Brumberg, editor of mystockoptions.com, a provider of information on restricted stock and stock options, says investors complain that they are hurt when stock prices fall, so why should employees get a benefit. "I lost money on my stock, I don't get anything for my loss," he said, referring to frustrated investors.

Stock options gained favor in the 1990s when the stock market was soaring. They made millionaires of thousands of employees at Microsoft and elsewhere. But now most of those options are effectively worthless.

Options give employees the right to buy company stock at a set price, called the strike price. The strike price is typically the price of the company stock when the options are issued. The problem comes when the strike price is so much higher than the current company stock price that the options, which typically have a 10-year life, are likely to expire worthless.

The strike prices on Microsoft's outstanding options range from 70 cents to $59.56, though most, including 70 million options it issued to employees in 2000, after the company's shares fell, are out of the money.

With the Microsoft deal, the company is allowing its employees to transfer their options to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., though the deal still is subject to review by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Kahn of Castlebridge says individuals with out-of-the-money company stock options have been asking him for help, but he has had to turn them away because their companies haven't been willing to change their restrictions on what employees can do with their options. "I have been approached on this stuff 50 times over the last five years and I've unfortunately, like any Wall Street bank, had to turn it down because we couldn't make it work," Mr. Kahn said.