One of the things I loved about working at Netflix was that the base assumption was that everyone was a top performer. If you weren't a top performer, you were given a severance check. The analogy we used was a sports team. Pro sports teams have really good players and great players. Some people are superstars, but unless you're at least really really good you're not on the team. Performance and compensation were com…
In my experience, these labels in corporate environments often correlate more with social dynamics and political acumen than actual work output. People who are less socially connected or don't engage in office politics may find themselves labeled as 'low performers' regardless of their actual contributions, while those who excel at workplace networking might be deemed 'top performers'.
The interview process of these kind of companies also often falls into a problematic pattern where interviewers pose esoteric questions they've recently researched or that happen to align with their narrow specialization from years in the same role. This turns technical interviews into more of a game of matching specific knowledge rather than evaluating problem-solving abilities, broader engineering competence or any notion of 'performance'.
Let's be honest: how many people can truly separate personal feelings from performance evaluation? Even with structured review processes in place, would most evaluators give high marks to someone they personally dislike, even if that person consistently delivers excellent work?