When mgmt tells you that there isn’t money for raises or bonuses, remember...
“When asked about future plans, Adamczyk said that the company plans to buy $4 billion worth of shares, which he considers to currently be a "bargain," and look toward making acquisitions.”
Moving money from liquid assets to stock rather than creating new products shows simply that Honeywell does not believe the current product portfolio and businesses warrant additional investment. Growth will come from acquisitions and possibly milking the ramp up of legacy military products. If you work in a legacy business and want to advance .. transfer to an acquisition early and join the vampires.
OP: With a stock buyback the money is still there. The cash is simply invested in HON stock instead of sitting in cash reserves. The stock is still a tangible asset that can be sold at any time at the current marked price.
If you look at the cash flow on HON's income statement you'll see that at the end of 2021 they had and end cash position of $10.96B and free cash flow of $5.24B. A $4B stock buyback has nothing to do with HON's ability to fund raises and bonuses.