I've never heard of a publicly traded company that allows employees to buy/sell options on their stock, and I'm willing to bet that the fine print at most places includes companies you're soon to acquire/be acquired from.
> you just heard through the grapevine that it's happening
Is that "grapevine" public? If not, it is by definition material non-public information.
In general in finance if you think you've found some clever exploit in the system that you're surprised no one else is taking advantage of, it's a good idea to double and triple check that it is in fact a legal exploit. Especially if you stand to gain millions off of something that seems easy to do.