This is the best summary I could come up with:

It was highly unpopular internally and the company officially abandoned it in late 2013, before long-time 'softie Satya Nadella took over in early 2014.

"What we tell the employees is absolute crap," one person involved with this year's review process told Insider.

"The tick marks are not meant to be ratings or labels — but instead a way for managers to determine impact and recommend rewards consistently across the company."

The manager who compared the process to stack ranking said that in practice, moving people to lower scores winds up being a necessity.

"If the employee delivered slightly lower impact than expected, their rewards will align below the middle of the opportunity range."

Microsoft Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan at the time instructed managers to give fewer employees "exceptional rewards," meaning a high performance rating that leads to higher pay and bonuses.

The original article contains 711 words, the summary contains 142 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!