A career expert recently went viral for showing how performance reviews are supposedly rigged against employees.
TikToker Danielle Roberts, who calls herself the Anti-Career Coach™ (@imdanielleroberts), filmed a short clip about performance evaluations and how they may be part of why so many millennials and Gen Z workers in corporate America are attracted to quiet quitting. The video has been viewed over 505,000 times as of the publication of this story.
“Performance review season for two of my clients,” Roberts began. “One is a manager who has multiple people reporting in to him, and one is an independent contributor who reports to her manager. Both of these companies use a scale of 1 to 5 to measure how employees are doing. 1 is terrible, 5 is Exceeds Expectations, and 3 is Meets Expectations.”
“The manager submitted 4s and 5s for the people on his teams,” Roberts continued. “And the independent contributor also got a majority of 5s, maybe one 4 and one 3. You know what the corporate offices came back to them and said? That you are not allowed to put people at 4s and 5s. Wait, that’s not fully true. You are allowed to, but it’s only for one or two employees. Not everyone can be ranked that way.”
“And yet millennials and Gen Z get flack for quiet quitting when there is no incentive for hard work,” she concluded.
@imdanielleroberts millennials and gen z no longer have incentives to work hard #quietquitting #greatresignation #millennialmoney #9to5 #careeradvice #worklifebalance #corporateamerica #healthyboundaries #selfadvocacy ♬ original sound – anti-career coach™
Multiple viewers shared their own horror stories with performance reviews.
“In my performance review I asked what I could do to get my score up and they said ‘nothing, we keep it there for everyone to be fair.’ Umm… what’s the point of trying then!?” a viewer said.
“4 places I won’t be going in 2024: out of my way, the extra mile, or above and beyond,” another quipped.
“I was told a 5 is not possible to get because we ‘always need to be striving,’” a third added.
Even commenters claiming to be managers admitted the system is rigged against employees. “Former manager. It’s rigged,” one wrote. “I talked to HR twice for giving 4s for most of my team and forced to move to 3s. Then because I pushed back I got a 1.”
Quiet quitting is a trend that took off after COVID. It refers to people who don’t resign from their positions but don’t go above and beyond. Though workers aren’t necessarily slacking on their core duties, companies don’t take kindly to employees who aren’t striving. That’s because companies depend on employees doing more than their job description to keep a competitive edge. Coined by corporate recruiter Bryan Creely, the term was associated with 50% of U.S. workers by Gallup.
Unfortunately, companies don’t seem to be interested in incentivizing their workforce. Many people feel like a cog that can be easily replaced. Another viral trend that has taken the internet by storm is Act Your Wage. Like quiet quitting, acting your wage stems from a lack of motivation and feelings of hopelessness. It’s the belief that employees should only work as hard as they are valued and that if they are paid minimum wage, then the company deserves minimum work.
The Daily Dot reached out to Roberts via TikTok comments for further information.
