[JJMcJ]

Had to look it up. Objectives and key results (OKR, alternatively OKRs). More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OKR.

Hmm. If you are supposed to not meet all your OKRs, then that guarantees you will have a record of unmeet OKRs, which can be used as ammunition to deny promotion or even fire someone.

So that encourages a sort of favoritism, where the people you want to promote anyway have their missed OKRs overlooked, while the rest of the pack aren't meeting their OKRs.

[ericbarrett]

Never worked at Google but I have seen exactly this happening at other OKR-based companies. Ultimately whether missing your OKRs is framed as valiant struggle or disappointing failure does absolutely depend on external perception.