Employee stock purchase plans usually don’t match, they just offer a 10-15% discount. I honestly have no idea what they’re talking about. 401k isn’t held by your employer, and ESPP doesn’t match.

I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but I’ve never heard of an employer that requires their 401k match to be invested in the company. Everywhere I or my wife has worked you could put it in any fund available with that 401k plan.

Even so, every company I’ve worked for allows withdrawals at various times for parts of the fund. I need to keep a certain % of mine in company stocks, I move the overflow asap into a different fund to protect myself.

If your retirement plan absolutely has to be locked into your employer, you have a rather large risk to yourself there and I’d potentially consider finding a new employer if I ended up there. Too many companies disappear to be comfortable with that.