The Death of Stack Ranking
It is with mixed emotions that today I witness the death of stack ranking at Microsoft.
In my opinion, it’s all a psychological trick, but in the past year or so I have grudgingly come to accept that it might be good for the company.
The fact is, by banishing the curve, we are changing the only thing that shouldn’t matter — the review score. Bonus money, salary increases, and so on will still be distributed according to a budget and some people will get more than others. Now, instead of getting a 3.0, those people will get 3.5s and the same 3.0 salary increase.
The part that is absolutely amazing to me is that this is what people want! To me, it was far bigger when Ballmer announced across-the-board salary increases — but apparently people would rather have a 3.5 than more money. I mean, a 2% salary increase can be explained away by “economic downturn”, “cost efficacy”, or whatever. But a 3.0 says, “You are a loser compared to your teammates!” It’s just a number, but it’s an assault on a person’s sense of identity, apparently.
My opinion always used to be, “it’s just a number, go see a psychologist if it stresses you out (but don’t touch my money)”. But when I saw how many people literally made themselves sick over a bad review score, I started to give up hope of logic prevailing over emotions. I guess if we tell every employee that he or she is a winner, we’ll have a more productive workplace with a lot less backstabbing (at least among people content to be individual contributors).