> Internal Amazon documents show the company has a five-tiered ranking system for employee performance reviews and expects managers to rank 20% of employees at the top level, 75% in the middle tiers, and 5% in the bottom tier.

How does this work in practice? 5% is 1 in 20, and I doubt the average Amazon manager has 20 direct reports.

If this is company-wide guidance for how performance is generally distributed, 5% in the bottom tier doesn’t sound very draconian. Even companies with the best hiring practices can’t get 100% good performers. Having only 5% of employees underperforming at any given time across the company doesn’t seem like an unreasonably cynical take.