Robert M. Gary writes:

But HP didn't ask you to put one dime into her severancebucket. The
company took the risk and the company lost their money.

The company imposed the risk on its employees, and the employees lost.

The owners of the company choose the compensation package of their
executives and its the owners who have to pay it.

When a company has a large number of anonymous and institutional shareholders,
its owners have virtually no influence on how it is run.