In the startup world, I’m prone to saying, “You can take the boy out of Microsoft, but not the Microsoft out of the boy.” This week I’ve been tracking the controversy around Microsoft’s abolition of ...

During its employee review process, Microsoft asks managers to adjust individuals' rankings based on where others on the team land to prevent too many from achieving the highest ranking and the pay ...

Microsoft is a company in transition, and the company’s “stack ranking” system, the bane of many managers and employees, is getting left behind. According to a Wall Street Journal report, Microsoft ...

Two tech companies are drawing attention lately for how they evaluate their employees, specifically for their use of a controversial system called stack ranking, which compares employees to each other ...

Look around the office. For any group of five people you can easily figure out which person excels, which three are doing okay, and that leaves the person who’s a slacker by comparison. Microsoft has ...

"Stack ranking" is a controversial system of rating employees and laying off the poorest performers. Attorney Alykhan Sunderji, who spent almost nine years at Amazon, said the system can be helpful.

Only a small percentage of employees, typically about 10%, can be designated as top performers. Meanwhile, a set number must be labeled as low performers and are often fired or pushed out, giving the ...