Meanwhile I'm sure the average line workers at IBM were told they had to share the pain. Of course, if the company does well again they won't be sharing in the gain. I'd love to know how anybody on a board of directors could do such a boneheaded move like rewarding for failure. If a CEO receives bonuses when profits are up, the reverse should be true as well. When the company is losing money, the bonus is negative and offsets the CEO's base salary. If the company does really poorly, the CEO should actually be in a position where they owe the company money.