[kaiby]

I've heard that at companies that did stack ranking, managers of groups with high performers would actually seek out poor performers who didn't care about their ranking from other groups, to add to their group so that they wouldn't have to give a poor mark to their own people. These poor performers became hot commodities. Talk about gaming the system...

[xyzzy_plugh]

I've seen this happen. The best part is when attrition is bad enough in some cycle that the poor performers stick around... and now the managers are really in trouble!

It can be difficult for line managers to fire their entire team.

[TeMPOraL]

> These poor performers became hot commodities. Talk about gaming the system...

Couple iterations of that and you'll have people who are hired and/or paid extra for the purpose of being a "fuse" that protects the high performers during layoffs by being first to get fired.

[ryandrake]

Not sure about the “paid extra” part, but this is called Hire To Fire[1] and is evidently in practice at companies that do stack ranking.

1: https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/amazons-controversial-hire-to...

[shriek]

That happens already. No big company is running on a skeleton crew. If they are then we have a bigger problem.

[scifibestfi]

It's a bad sign when it sounds like a Dilbert cartoon.

[kyrra]

Circa 2006 I saw a friend who was a manager do exactly this. There wasn't stack ranking. He just kept a low performer on his team to sacrifice to the RIFs when they came through.

[raxxorraxor]

The bad thing is that this is predictable behavior and management still does it. Should the suggestion get grouped into the 5% of low performers? This is clearly damaging to overall work morale and company goals. And not to an insignificant part.

What would you give for that performance? I cannot see anything that would benefit the company. Not even employment costs, because employees certainly price that in.

[dbg31415]

Yup, this happens. Basically just hiring people to take the fall.

Seen this happen for teams where the manager loves everyone on their team.

[npteljes]

I know I would to that, to protect my team, and those who I consider good performers.