[didymospl]

That's exactly my story. I spent first few years of my career in a large company with a formal performance review. Everyone had to set some measurable KPIs with the manager at the beginning of the year and then regularly review it on 1-on-1. It was supposed to be the main factor in determining promotions. I really liked that job and I wanted to get promoted so I worked my a.. off by writing tons of code, tests, fixing bugs that no one had time to look at, doing code reviews, participating in architectural design meetings, helping interns, giving presentations on new libraries etc.

Every year, around September-October when I was close to the finishing line for A grade, either by resolving 200 Jira tickets or increasing test coverage in my code to 85%, my boss would congratulate me, say something about lacking "bigger picture" and then simply add a totally unrealistic goal to my list. One year it was to increase the profit of our department, another to activate ten-person project which was started a month ago in production before the end of Q3. Something that suits a naive junior dev very well, you know. Then at the final review by the end of year he would say that even though my individual objectives were met, I'm not that much of a team player because I failed to achieve goals that are team-oriented.

I have to admit it was a strong team and I was far from being the best developer there but in fact I was doing senior work for junior's salary. When I found out new junior hires earn much more than I do, I decided to hand in my notice. I was offered promotion immediately but still said no and ended up going from regular to a team lead in two years in a startup with no performance review whatsoever.

[quacked]

That's symptomatic of a dead organization, in my opinion. All employees should be compensated at the highest level the organization is willing to pay them at that moment, in terms of responsibility, compensation, and title. If there's no room to promote them because the org chart is full, but they deserve it, congratulate them, explain the situation, and give them a raise and more responsibility. Your employees should never be able to call your bluff, because you shouldn't be bluffing!

It really throws me for a loop when people say they were offered better work for more money when they threatened to leave. How can you call yourself a good manager if you're not advocating for the best possible work in exchange for the best possible compensation out of each of your employees?