zlacker

>>kisna7+(OP)
"average" with respect to the company, or the population of programmers as a whole? If normally distributed and sufficiently large, you'd be getting rid of half your company under the former. The latter seems like a tough thing to measure to begin with. I can't imagine either really being the case.

Though it does sound somewhat similar to the concept of "stack ranking", which a few companies (such as MS) are notable for having used as part of their annual review process in the past.

Stack ranking has always sounded to me like an absolutely poisonous thing to implement in an otherwise healthy office. But if the organization knows that it needs to implement a reduction in force regardless, then I guess it might make sense if management does not have a feel for who their best engineers are.

>>thearn+N1
The advantage of stack ranking is that it's a formal process, and one in which managers' behavior is more measurable and reviews are definitively scheduled. It also aligns employee churn with performance to some degree, moving weaker hires out and encouraging better hires to stay, again via a formal process.

What it reduces is the tendency of less formal processes to give raises to those who ask and to stiff those who don't and to throw up the "your salary is confidential". All those things it avoids are known to create a high potential for bad company culture and moral.