Leaked Microsoft documents detail an employee performance review system where managers are quietly asked to adjust workers' results to limit the highest ratings
Yes, but it's not documented, so it's not actionable, and the people not in management who end up getting the bonuses or raises in any given year often actively work to undermine any efforts to speak out or organize against these practices.
They pick enough people to actually get the pat on the head to keep the workers collectively destabilized and worried about what each other are saying.
I once had a manager -- who was new to being in charge of reports -- just outright admit in my annual review that he had to find negatives to ding me with when I asked him why no one had ever mentioned any of the issues he was bringing up to me at any time before the review. But when my closest co-workers (who were in other departments) were the ones who got the 5-star ratings and the raises, it would have just come across as sour grapes if I had said something.
It's not that hard to socially engineer an environment where it looks like individual efforts are encouraged and rewarded while simultaneously discouraging those efforts and refusing to reward them when they pay dividends.
It's not that hard to socially engineer an environment where it looks like individual efforts are encouraged and rewarded while simultaneously discouraging those efforts and refusing to reward them when they pay dividends.
You literally described my last gig to a tee. What everyone said and actually did couldn’t be farther apart. Basically gas lighting 101.
A climate change induced superstorm could destroy an American bootlicker's home, and they'd blame the local homeless population.
It's the sunk cost/gamblers fallacy, they've been licking that boot their whole lives, with the promise that one day they'll be granted access to the club for their doting licks, and god damn it, they'll keep licking until they are!
Just keep licking... just keep licking... just keep licking...
We did this at target. I had 5 hourly managers under me, 4 were amazing and went above and beyond every day and 1 that was complete ass. I was assigned a number of ratings I could give, each out of 3 (3 being best). It was 3-2-2-1-1 so I one of my best had to get the worst score possible while one other at the exact same level the best. It made no sense and I hated that.