Also, the people who think you need to grade on a curve are making life really difficult for honest managers who want to reward all their staff who excel. Employees either exceeded expectations or they didn't. With a curve, you either always give bonuses to the same couple people (so why should the others bother to exceed?) or give a bonus to Jack one year and kind of randomly to Sam the next year (to spread it around). Neither is helpful.

This. It is entirely possible to have every employee exceed (or fail to meet) expectations. If the job expectation is to make ten toy Jack-in-the-boxes per hour or sell five cars per week and every employee makes twelve Jack-in-the-boxes per hour or sells six cars per week, then every employee has exceeded expectations. In that case, the company has gained the benefit of avoiding having to hire some number of additional Jack-in-the-box makers or car salesman. Similarly, if every employee makes fewer than ten Jack-in-the-boxes or sells fewer than five cars, then every employee has failed to meet expectations.

If expectations are too low, this is a mangement problem, and not one for which employees should be punished. As noted above, increased expectations should come with increased pay. I would also make the more-controversial argument that an employee who regularly fails to meet expectations is also a management problem, likely some combination of inappropriate expectations, an employee in the wrong job or with inadequate training and support, or an employee who should have been fired for performance years ago.

Not every company gives bonuses. For those who do, I have seen them treated in one of several ways:

- bonuses are only given for extraordinary work done far above and beyond job expectations; everyone else gets nothing
- bonuses are only given for exceeding expectations in some way
- bonuses are given to everyone, with higher amounts going to employees who exceed expectations and little or nothing going to employees who fail to meet expectations
- some other scheme, usually involving a mix of a bonus for company performance and individual performance; in those cases, an employee who fails to meet expectations would get his share of the company-performance bonus, but likely little or no individual performance bonus

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Working hard does not equal exceeding expectations. There is an employee who reports to me who works hard and I appreciate her efforts. However, she makes lots of mistakes, inane thorough, and needs a lot of hand-holding. Is her performance and enough for me to let her go? No. But I’ve definitely considered it and in no way does she exceed my expectations.

Why wouldn’t you let this employee go?

I hired her in November 2022 and she was out for three months in 2023 on maternity leave, so I have (a little) hope that with time and continuous work she will improve.

Plus, I can tell she’s trying so I feel it’s my job to do all that I can to help her succeed. I don’t take firing people lightly and I want to make sure I give my all before making that decision.

I am in a similar situation and another reason is that it’s insanely hard to hire in my field. This sub par employee is already top candidate, I know his boss (on a personal level) at the previous firm who raves about him.

Anonymous wrote:At our organization, meets expectations means no bonus because you did only what you were already paid to do. So I consider meets expectations subpar when a bonus is reserved for those who get exceeds or outstanding.

That's not what subpar means: people who are actually subpar didn't meet expectations. And people who merely meet expectations shouldn't get a bonus.

You should, however, get a raise if your goals are ratcheted up every year. Employers should not play the game of increasing expectations without increasing base pay.

Also, the people who think you need to grade on a curve are making life really difficult for honest managers who want to reward all their staff who excel. Employees either exceeded expectations or they didn't. With a curve, you either always give bonuses to the same couple people (so why should the others bother to exceed?) or give a bonus to Jack one year and kind of randomly to Sam the next year (to spread it around). Neither is helpful.

Anonymous wrote:Ratings don't matter. It's just a trick to make you work extra for a fake promise of higher pay.

This. Do not be fooled.