Forced rankings and the annual dismissal of 10–15% of employees have created a toxic culture. What was once an open, collaborative environment where people worked together for the good of the company has shifted into one where employees protect their work and focus on staying in the top percentiles. This process has been in place for 5+ years, and it is reasonable to assume that any true underperformance was addressed in most departments during the first couple of cycles. At this point, the system feels less like a performance tool and more like a popularity contest. Managers are placed in impossible positions by leadership and forced to make difficult decisions about their teams.
Workplace of Choice culture survey scores may appear to be improving, but the reality is more complicated. Employees are afraid to give honest negative feedback because they believe they may be targeted afterward—and unfortunately, that fear is justified. I have sat in HR meetings where the focus was not on addressing the feedback itself, but on trying to determine who made the negative comments. The stated reason was so that person could be “coached,” yet those individuals often seem to disappear in the next forced ranking cycle.
Finally, AI is being overused in ways that create more activity without adding meaningful value. It is generating additional work that then gets stuck at existing choke points, increasing the appearance of “work completed” without improving outcomes.
