As a partially mitigating effect, the places too incompetent to get you your shares are usually the places too incompetent to succeed enough that your shares matter.

I once told this to a boss. "If you can't get my share paperwork, it won't matter because you won't enough of your stuff together to succeed." I never got that paperwork.

As practical advice, you should still follow-up and demand all the paperwork and not accept excuses for it. The company fulfilling its contractual obligations to its employees is not a distraction from their real work. If they can't find the time to do this, start looking elsewhere immediately.

Seriously, I've heard this one waaaay too many times. It's right up there with "you'll work for equity right, and maybe we can throw in a bit of cash if you put in enough hours?"

Can't promise you what they'll be worth though.