have spent years working at RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, and the single most demoralizing part of the job isn’t the workload or the pressure — it’s the year-end rating system.
The performance review process is deeply flawed, blatantly political, and intentionally designed to reward past favoritism instead of current-year results.
Let’s be clear: your rating has far less to do with how hard you worked this year or what you actually delivered, and far more to do with:
• Who your manager already “likes”
• Whether you’ve historically been labeled a “top performer”
• How well you play the corporate game
• And, most importantly, how good you are at kissing butt.
Actual performance? Revenue growth? Territory improvement? Market execution? Customer wins?
Those come after optics and relationships.
Management knows this system is broken. Everyone knows it. Leaders openly acknowledge how unfair and outdated it is — yet year after year they do absolutely nothing to fix it.
The same people magically receive “Above Bar” ratings every single year, regardless of current performance, while others who grind all year long are capped or pushed into “meets expectations.” It’s predictable. It’s rigged. And it’s demoralizing.
For Territory Managers, this isn’t just about pride — it’s money. These ratings directly impact compensation and bonuses in a very real way. A subjective, political process decides who gets thousands more in pay while equally (or better) performing peers get left behind. The financial impact is substantial, and it consistently favors the same insiders.
What makes it worse is watching obvious underperformers get rewarded simply because they flatter leadership, echo management talking points, and never challenge bad decisions. Meanwhile, people who actually move the business forward are told to “be patient” or “next year will be your year.”
Spoiler: next year never comes.
This company loves to talk about meritocracy, transparency, and performance culture. In reality, it operates on favoritism, legacy perceptions, and manager bias.
If you’re considering working here, understand this:
Hard work alone will not get you ahead. Results alone will not get you ahead. Playing politics will.
Unless you’re comfortable watching less capable coworkers leapfrog you because they mastered the art of corporate flattery, think carefully before joining.
