I suppose as an executive you ought to consider the cost of attrition and replacement. By giving your employees nothing while making a sizable stock buyback, yo

I suppose as an executive you ought to consider the cost of attrition and replacement. By giving your employees nothing while making a sizable stock buyback, you're almost certainly going to disgruntle people. Some will leave. Often your best employees. Others will stop working as hard, having a negative affect on your "productivity gains." Additionally, if your financial outlook is so poor, maybe you shouldn't initiate a stock buyback. It's okay to sit on cash to even out bad years. Using stock buybacks to artificially boost stock price so performance targets can be hit to trigger bonus payouts likely don't help with productivity either.