How does a CEO not understand the employment needs of his company? Oh, right, he's playing stock price games with the investors and doesn't give a shit about his employees.
I once worked for a public company that panicked if it looked like the company wasn't going to meet its quarterly earnings projection. All the actions that the company took--layoffs, getting rid of contractors (also layofs), making employees take banked PTO--for this short-term benefit negatively affected the company's ability to meet its longer-term goals. It was infuriating.