No. I view her bonus more like a payout of equity from the company rather than a payout from revenues. That is, the bonus is about keeping the equity value where the owners want it and positioning the company to keep it that way. She's management in the classic sense. She managed in other companies and made her way to the top. She's no MillerKnoll Dady's girl. She's not a significant owner.

If you distributed her $4 million bonus in stock to employees they'd get $364 each. They'd probably sell all their stock which would dilute the equity price, most likely. Why would the owners want that? In any case, it isn't some huge amount. She'd sell the stock slowly, but would most like keep most of it while employed there.

I don't believe most of her key employees were upset by what she said. It's not like she's trying to sell off the company. But if she is, that's a 100x worse problem than her bonus! Again, she worked her way from the near bottom in retail. That's her bio. Any employee there can do what she did. She's one of them. One of the reasons I believe she was so frank is they have that relationship, but the media played their own story.

I've been in her position in a very, very small way. Most employees ONLY think about themselves. They don't think about the long-term health of their company. They don't WANT to make hard decisions. They just want to do their work, be recognized for it, and go home. What I hope you understand is their selfishness gets IN THE WAY of the company's efforts to succeed. There's always a tricky balance to be kept between their needs and that of the company.

For them to keep their jobs next year and hopefully get a bonus the business SIMPLY must sell the same or more. The employees won't do that. We are ALL naturally lazy. We gravitate towards appointing leaders and giving them more ownership. She loves her employees because she told them the truth. She knew it would ruffle some feathers! That was part of the point. I'll take that over tell me what I want to hear while you steal behind closed doors.

BTW, one of the greatest business movies of all time is also about a furniture company in the 1950 close to where she is. I highly recommend!!! Nothing has changed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Suite