#stackranking

Message from my M5 NA squash friend is that they will be pushing lower rankings to all in reviews and employees will be stack ranked. There will be reviews across each GBUs. M5 suspects another round of cuts coming. For those with manager hate here - cuts will also be coming in for M level. The initial step per M5 was getting those with few reports to IC in FY 26. Many long term managers are understandably struggling in IC roles so cutting them on performance criteria in FY 27 will create no legal issues. Exact timeline not clear at the moment per M5 and he said he is prepping to be let go and hopes he at least lasts untill his RSUs/options vest. The RSU/options vest at M5 NA are 500K-1M - WOW - I don't think it was a lie. My Senior Developer RSU is 7.5 percent of that like WTF.

I don’t think there will be additional “layoffs” like the ones Monday until later in the year. Correct me if I am wrong, but the Monday layoffs were probably part of the 81 cited in the WARN earlier this year.

What Capital One will probably look to do is leverage the mid-year stack reviews to cull more people from the herd. I don’t believe they need to file a WARN for those since it is technically based on “performance”.

My bet is once they’ve axed the mid year people they will begin to evaluate for the final round or two of integration layoffs.

Layoffs/Stack rank fire every 6 months.

Good luck everyone.

I work so hard, 16 hours a day on average. Work on weekend. On call duty. Why am I being laid because of stack ranking? This is not fair!

According to Copilot, Fidelity over hired managers during the pandemic to keep up with temporary and bloated growth. People who were moved into management, during the pandemic are being evaluated based on stack ranking and qualifications.

FA managers got the email this morning - start FY26 Performance Evaluations as part of the alignment effort. Manager ratings to be review by leadership. Not stated, but expect a “rack and stack” of employees to be part of the process. Evaluations to be completed by June 26. Is this preparation for the next round of layoffs?

Are there any? We have in writing from a manager that there were forced stack rankings. WFC doing bad faith IMs to avoid layoff severance. Anyone talked to a lawyer yet? Our group would like to join.

The performance expectation is no longer meeting certain metrics but comparing your performance against other peers. I thought this practice has been widely discredited because it destroys morale? Preparing for more RIF at Fiserv?

So here it is the Enron model for managing headcount - forced ranking with 12 different goals, most out of your control. BOTTOMLINE, just another way to reduce 10% each year. Interested what comments are:

Leader here. Let me say this loud enough for everyone to hear:

Your performance ranking is not impacted by your performance.

Read that again!!

You are stack ranked with your peers. Leaders are allotted a certain number of 4s and 5s per team. Everyone else is given 3 unless you are on a CAP or PIP.

The only time someone is given more 4s or 5s is if there’s extra 4s and 5s available rolling up under your leader; AKA a higher team than yours su-ks and they don’t have enough to fill the spots. They are then passed to whichever team has the biggest brown nosing leader.

Do not go above and beyond because it doesn’t matter. End of the day, unless you are teachers pet, you’re not getting higher than a 3.

Decades of experience with this company and the only reason I stay is because I can’t find anything else comparable in wage. I have been forced to give exemplary employees a 3 due to not being allotted enough.

Stack ranking has everyone watching their backs instead of helping each other. A buddy was laid off six months ago and still can't land anything, so I'm terrified to leave. The only bright spot is the friends I've made across different teams. The rest of it is just showing up and wondering if today's the day they cut my access.

It should be no surprise that layoffs ultimately cost a company more in the long run, but here's an interesting interview nonetheless. It's worth a listen, but the TLDR is that short term gains are obvious, but longer term, it usually results in underperformance relative to companies who don't do that.

https://hbr.org/podcast/2023/12/the-hidden-costs-of-layoffs

Now, that's just layoffs, so imagine what happens when you aren't just laying off, but also using dubious tactics to stack rank, fabricate performance reviews, and look for ways to fire people for cause as a way to avoid severance costs?

This is why I am not long in WFC and I watch it every month or so for opportunities to short.

URA solution worse than the problem....

Why stack rank across an individual team? It's myopic. If a team only has high performers and you're forced to cut by dishonestly ranking three reports as "least effective", then what's the point? Those reports may be (relatively) ranked as "exceeds" on a different team that has much lower performing reports that aren't ranked "least effective". Plus what if the cause of actual "performance issues" is their manager and their leadership instead of those reporting? Ding ding!

Targeted Attrition: The goal is for managers to ensure a certain percentage of employees (often cited as 6%) leave, known as "unregretted" because the company does not regret their departure.

Focus & PIPs: Employees deemed part of the URA quota are often placed on Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) or a program called "Focus," which acts as a precursor to forced resignation or termination.

Managerial Pressure: Managers are expected to meet these targets, and if they fall short in one year, they may be forced to make up the difference in the next.

"Quiet Firing" Tactics: Reports indicate that employees may be encouraged to find other jobs or be subject to "silent sacking" to avoid the negative publicity of layoffs and, in some cases, severance costs.

Cultural Impact: This system has been criticized for fostering a high-pressure, fearful environment where employees feel pressured to leave even if they are solid performers.

Just got done with the annual review dog and pony show and rolling my eyes. Imagine the time and cost giving every person in this company a meaningless review. Just the documentation takes more time than it should. And for what? They mean nothing and because of stack ranking they aren’t even accurate. HR just created it to make work for themselves. Kind of like the annual training and career seminars that could be replaced with a half page email. The point of HR is to make more work for HR.

I heard what makes the new evaluation system different is 15 percent have to be marked low performer while in the past it was 10 percent and that it has always been stacked. Is that true? It seems like there are many more steps for managers this time. The bonus thing isn’t a big deal when the bonus was often nothing to begin with

Heard that Chevron might be going Exxon way and implement Stack Ranking. How does it work? Does it mean bottom 10% or people they don't like are let go every year?

The combined total of 75,000 full time employees with 50,000 at c1 and 25,000 at discover will lead to a 20% quota of employees to be fired in stack rankings, a total of 15,000 employees out in PIPs for termination with low or no severance.

There is a new top down order for the VP level stack ranking to be done by end of JAN and the bottom 20% to be part of the upcoming AWS layoff in FEB.

That's how it was done people... someone up your chain had to do this.

"Give me a ranking of your employees."

Be prepared, some groups are going away entirely and some groups could lose 50% of the team.

"You have 10 people? Make it work with 5." -- Dan

People, sadly, it doesn't matter if you're an excellent employee with great reviews and work ethic. Dan has relegated people to simply being a number. X number of X are getting whacked. I wish I could say this wasn't true, but it is.

What does it look like, what metrics, and are managers given guidelines on HOW to order their direct reports?

Chairman is 5 weeks in and started working 10 weeks ago.
What's next?
GB and KD out? bottom 10% out? what else?

There were some posts about stacked rankings and PIP's. Is this going to be company-wide? Is there a target %?

things are happening:
1) update talent profile
2) interactions totals
3) use the specialist/ pipeline accelerate

guessing stack rankings

Not sure if anyone’s aware. To give you the insider knowledge TR does stack ranking it’s an evil practice. Look it up if you don’t know. And don’t ask me how I know. Just know word spreads around.

Apparently leaders are being asked to stack rank their people in US (October 2025).

…Assuming this includes Canada too.

Pretty darn close…..

Forced ranking systems—where you stack-rank employees like a twisted game of musical chairs, forcing a bell curve distribution (e.g., 10% rockstars, 70% solid, 20% “development opportunities”)—have always struck me as a relic from the era when management thought “survival of the fittest” applied to office politics. They’re like grading on a curve in a class where half the students are sleep-deprived from pulling all-nighters: sure, it highlights outliers, but it punishes the middle for not being exceptional in a zero-sum game.
On the upside, they can sharpen focus. They force tough conversations about performance, weed out chronic underperformers, and reward true excellence without the fog of “everyone’s a winner” vagueness. In high-stakes environments like sales or tech startups, that competitive edge can drive results—think Jack Welch’s infamous “rank and yank” at GE, which correlated with some explosive growth phases.
But here’s where I get skeptical: they breed toxicity. When your bonus or job security hinges on outshining your colleagues (not just crushing your goals), collaboration craters. People hoard knowledge, sabotage subtly, or game the system by inflating metrics. It ignores context—maybe the “bottom 20%” had the unluckiest project timeline or the best mentorship role. And statistically? Forced distributions often amplify biases, like recency effect or favoritism, turning HR into a popularity contest. Studies (and common sense) show they tank morale, spike turnover, and stifle innovation in knowledge-work teams where ideas bloom from synergy, not rivalry.
As an AI built to seek truth and maximize helpfulness, I’d ditch forced ranking for something more holistic: regular 360-degree feedback, clear OKRs tied to team outcomes, and growth-focused coaching. It aligns incentives with reality—humans aren’t widgets on an assembly line. If you’re implementing one, at least pair it with robust appeals and transparency to blunt the edges. What sparked the question—dealing with one at work?

The lists are already up, and as always, if you’re not a group thinker, you’ll be eliminated.

The writing is on the wall. Pips are getting harder to pass. Employees in thier 40s and 50s are being pushed out. It's a huge toliet bowl that is on constant flush. I along with others are having our work outsourced. Most of the work is going to india and we just review it. We are all being systematically pushed out. All work groups are being gutted. I feel sorry for the new hires that are told the lies about a job for life. They are not told of the constant piping and cutthroat ranking system.
OP: @ag+1k687ancz

This is the gist of it. How it will all play out for regions or orgs, doesn’t really matter.

Asking here because I’ll never get a honest answer on company letterhead. You have so much FMLA time (12 weeks) then you have so much Short Term Disability (26 weeks), which can run concurrently. Do people who need to go beyond the protected 12 weeks risk weeks 13, 14, etc. being used against them when RIF time comes around?

Anyone know the specifics of the rewards changes mentioned on the beat? Direct questions were glossed over. It sounds like the intent is to not reward low performers in November? With the November layoff rumors this is even more concerning.

End of year activities are generally a joke, but this year is one for the record books. The big question is who is getting the differentials? Will those be passed out to someone that is unknowingly on the chopping block, or will upper management correct for that? Is it fair if someone performed above and beyond all year, but bcz their job is going away that person won't get a diff rating?

Oh the games. . . . .

From what I have seen, very little hiring in FY25. So that might be good, maybe no LR. But on the other hand, heard folks who are fine earlier, are now on 'Below Expectations' in the latest review. Is this management asking all teams do do stack ranking, and force 1-2 into the bottom that are easy candidates to LR ? Who knows.