Appraisals are a corporate scam : Build Owners ~ Shashank Sharma

 Appraisals are a corporate scam. 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shashank-sharma2016_appraisals-are-a-corporate-scam-you-work-activity-7331512593972424704-BwyN/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android&rcm=ACoAAAOAwpYBTeRf7rsPPlNNfY8jWA9ptTqmnAM

You work with someone for a year. You see how they handle pressure, how they show up in moments that matter. You know their strengths, their flaws, their contributions. And then, once a year, you sit down to give them a score. As if trust, judgment, and performance can be captured on a scale of 1 to 5.

Why?

Why would you review someone you already know? Why reduce a year of collaboration to a template? Why pretend objectivity in a system designed for control?

The answer goes back over a century. In 1911, Frederick Taylor formalized the idea of scientific management. Break down tasks. Measure output. Control variance. It made sense in factories. It still shapes how companies think about performance today.

But performance isn’t the real objective. Appraisals exist to reinforce hierarchy. To remind people where they stand. To preserve the illusion that leadership is evaluating effort, when in reality most reviews are a proxy for power.

The deeper problem is misalignment.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot. The next company I work with, if I commit to something long-term, it has to offer more than a salary. It has to offer ownership. Equity and real skin in the game.

Because ownership changes behavior. You don’t wait for permission. You think longer-term. You protect value. You take the hard path, not the easy one, because the outcome affects you directly.

Most companies miss this. They create compensation plans that reward passivity. They think bonuses drive effort. They mistake retention for engagement. They assume people will care deeply about a future they don’t actually own.

So they get safe decisions. Low initiative. Shallow loyalty.

Appraisals won’t fix that. Metrics won’t fix that. Leadership workshops won’t fix that.

If people aren’t owners, they’re renters. And renters don’t build. They maintain. They move on when the lease ends.

The companies that thrive are the ones that invert the model. They stop managing performance. They start distributing ownership. Influence. Responsibility. Upside.

Because when people are trusted to build, they don’t need to be reviewed.

They review themselves. Every day.