[kelnos]

That's by design, though. If you make company performance (equity) a big part of someone's compensation, and the company isn't performing (regardless of whose "fault" it is), then that person's compensation dropping is the correct outcome. Otherwise you're telling someone that their compensation depends on performance, while also telling them that your words don't matter and you're going to pay them a lot even if the company does badly.

A global pandemic is fairly unique situation to be the cause, but that's life. Why should executives get their compensation propped up when the line employees are getting laid off? It might make sense from a finance perspective, but it's complete garbage from a social equity perspective.