Problem:
This multiple perspectives exercise would certainly be beneficial for everyone in your company to do because it really puts you in the shoes of others and forces you to see how others are affected by every decision the business makes. Your analysis of the situation was thorough and appreciated your recognition of the affect on the customer if employee compensation packages are changed. This reminds me a lot of the study we did on the change leader who recognized that the company's new medical device was in such high demand that employees would have to work more hours and on holidays. That change leader (Graham, I believe) decided that, instead of telling employees "this is how it is", he would ask them how the company could make their lives easier during this time. Perhaps the change leader at your organization needs to be honest and say something like, "We could do one of a few things: increase pay/benefits and with it the price of our products/services and risk losing customers in which case we all might not have jobs, or we could lay off X% of the employees and distribute their pay to the remaining employees and expect them to work X% more, or we could do nothing and be grateful that we have jobs when there are literally hundreds of thousands of people who would give anything to just have a job these days." Of course I wouldn't advocate for that exact wording, but that general idea may be something that people need to hear.
What are your thoughts on that?