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On itself, it's a measurement methodology, also known as forced distribution. Problem was, back in the 70s and 80s, employers thought they can use it for employee appraisals, promotions, value measurement. It probably worked well for the next 20 to 30 years… probably.

A bell curve looks like this: _n_ Most employees are in the middle, the curve of the bell. They're the average performers, the "go to work, finish assigned task or quota, go home". On the right, the n_ are the overperformers, those who go the extra mile without asking anything in return, not even recognition. On the left of the curve, _n are the underperformers.

Employers using this method concentrate more on retaining the average, and "teaching" the underperformers to become "average". The overperformers are used as "be like {your_name_here}" and largely ignored. They also can't give you a bigger raise because they have to distribute their budget to where most employees are -- the average performers.

They also tend to promote from the average because overperformers usually stop being one once they have a different line of work. They need the overperformers to cover for the underperformers and those on the lower-end of the average group.

They also think that overperformers won't leave. True enough, turn-over is higher in the average group (obviously because most employees are in that category). Underperformers don't leave because they usually wait to get terminated. Overperformers don't because they believe in the company (but the company doesn't care about them).

The bell curve is not a reward or value measurement methodology. It's like in gaming. The bell curve is most games these days -- level-based and not skill-based. Skill-based games are usually sandbox type of games like Ultima Online and Durango. Developing your skills matter, not your "level".

The use of the bell curve to measure employees is for an AI society. On a human society, we're skill-based. If you're an overperformer, you expect you'll get what you want, most of the time, because you've invested. They didn't need to dangle a carrot in front of you, they didn't worry about you, you didn't complain when they asked you for an extra job (that is usually done by promoted employees), you never asked for anything in return for going the extra mile.

Then boom, they drop the ball. The average people gets what they want, while you the overperformer, they have so many reasons why they can't -- not even to approve leaves for example. Or, you still need to prove yourself because what you're doing right now is the "normal" you. In other words, they're telling you that you need to go super-overperformer.

It's like this. An overperformer usually gets scores 4.5 to 5.0. To be "qualified", you need to exceed that. They use your being an overperformer against you because that's the result of the bell curve. The average usually get scores 3.0 to 4.0, so when they reach 3.1 to 4.4, they're "getting better".