Anonymous wrote:i got all 4s this year. i got close to 3 last year when i thought i did exceptionally well. i knew i outperformed/overachieved this year but was still surprised based on how i was rated a year ago. point is it's all relative not absolute.

and got $15k bonus for my all 4s! that's 14k more than last year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like they want to avoid giving people a reason to ask for a raise? Dumb.

Kinda think this…. It is a drag, and discourages and or is discouraging people from working hard.

There are many books on this topic. Organizations become bureaucracies which become self-perpetuating organisms that tend toward stasis. The organization doesn't really want high and low performers, it wants everything to just keep rolling along.

In the long run, it's how they become delisted from the stock market on the way to the corporate graveyard, like three of my past employers.