Business | Motivating workers

Ranked and yanked

Firms that keep grading their staff ruthlessly may not get the best from them

Nov 16th 2013|NEW YORK

IT IS a brutal management technique in which bosses grade their employees’ performance along a “vitality curve” and sack those who fall into the lowest category. Known as “ranking and yanking”, it had its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s. In America its popularity faded somewhat after it was seen to have contributed to the fall of Enron. Now it is back in the headlines.

On November 8th All Things D, a tech-industry website, reported that Yahoo staff are increasingly unhappy about a quarterly performance review introduced last year by the new boss, Marissa Mayer. The grading exercise is said to have cost 600 of them their jobs in recent weeks.

This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Ranked and yanked”