On an earlier thread several asked for a repost of content paraphrased below:
For a career at the company, your performance vector has to be a net positive for 20 or 30 years. You can go up and down a bit around the middle bucket and be ok as long as you work hard and are diligent and a team player.
But if you drop and stay in lowest two buckets for more than two - four assessment cycles you should be concerned over perceptions of the perceived baggage you now carry as a perceived low relative performer longer term, as the unconscious bias of your rankers is very difficult to overcome.
With that backdrop, after the 2020 8-10 % MLRP program followed by 4q20 15 % voluntary and involuntary; there is net exodus of roughly 23 - 25 percent of your peer / ranking group on gross average in many instances.
So... what this now means to you is...In 5 months from now in May 2021 there is probably to be rationally expected between another 3-10 % MLRP program on top of this reduction in 2020.
So the end result in June of 2021 is roughly 26 - 35 % of your peers in your current rank group are no longer present after next rank cycle in 2021. Probably most of them that will have left the company populating the “ni” and “good” designated lower two quintiles.
So after May 2021 the ranking system and the math both requires any remaining ”Goods” to become “NI” or “NSI” and many “very goods” have to either become “Goods” and “NI” to make the math work on the forced rankings with quintile buckets still required.
Then fast forward and replay this into May 2022 - assume no layoffs but anything between a 3-10% MLRP process consistent with what happened this year.
If you think you are “very good” now you truly really are , but in the relative world of next rank cycles, on a relative ranking basis the “very goods” must have to mostly now become mostly “NI” and a some “goods” in just less than 18 months from now.
Math and forced rankings are hard to overcome the actual reality of how the game evolves for anyone ranked less than 50% because the usual 5–7-year progression of falling to lower quintile and outcome is now accelerated in the last year by the 23-25 % real reduction that occurred this year and another 3-10% that would potentially be exposed to MLRP and PIP in May 2021.
It is brutal system when expressed mathematically.
Best of luck with all future endeavors.
Any current “very goods” please really note , you are now at best “ni” or “good” in lowest two quintiles right now today as we step into next ranking cycle.
Don’t get mad at your bosses when they tell you this, just say you are smart and understand math. Don’t make them uncomfortable personally because they also know and disagree with the math, but they can’t say they disagree with the math.
It is what it is... no use being an a..hole when everyone knows math is math.
Have a financial plan already in play and always have other options in play. There is no long term loyalty so be the boss of your own destiny.
And you must unfortunately fully understand that when you drop into the bottom 25-30 percent there is really no recovery for you to have long-term career with the company.
It is sad to have to write this guidance. It was not like this 15 years ago.
Keep technical skills current and avoid going management track where most of your technical skills will become obsolete in 2-5 years.