In the process of conducting performance assessments, some employers arbitrarily expand the scope of assessment targets, set assessment indicators at will, and even resort to "everyone takes the blame" style assessments. Professionals point out that the assessment content and weight distribution should take into account employees' job levels and the importance of their positions, and should correspond to each other and be proportionate; the higher the position, the heavier the assessment tasks that should be undertaken.

　　"We are ordinary tellers, belonging to the settlement and operations department. The banking industry explicitly prohibits issuing deposit assessment indicators to non-marketing departments. Yet we not only have to share marketing tasks such as deposits and loans, but if we fail to complete them, our performance pay is deducted." Recently, when talking about performance assessments, Liu Yonglin, a teller at a bank in Jinan, Shandong Province, was quite indignant.

　　Liu Yonglin did the math for the reporter: in the fourth quarter of 2023, in order to boost year-end results, his bank assigned him, a teller, a performance task of attracting 3 million yuan in deposits. "I really had no choice—I mobilized all my relatives and friends, and together with all the savings of myself and my parents, I barely completed the task by the end of the quarter and received a performance bonus of 200 yuan. If I hadn't completed it, I would have been deducted 1,000 yuan."

　　A reporter from Workers' Daily investigated and found that, like Liu Yonglin, there are many other employees troubled by performance assessments. In the process of conducting performance assessments, some employers "go off track" on questions such as who should be the assessment target and what content is worth assessing, resulting in situations such as "those who shouldn't be assessed are assessed" and "formalism that weighs quantity over quality in assessments."

　　Working at a Loss to Complete Extra Performance Tasks

　　"It is already an 'open secret' in the industry that employees in non-marketing positions share marketing tasks." Liu Yonglin found that some colleagues, in order to complete their indicators, even "buy deposits" and "buy loans" through intermediaries. "Last December, a colleague hired an intermediary to attract deposits: for every 10,000 yuan deposited, 5 yuan was paid per day. 'Buying' 1 million yuan in deposits cost 500 yuan a day."

　　Song Zhuanxia, who also works at a bank, had an experience similar to Liu Yonglin's. More than a month ago, Song Zhuanxia, who works in the lobby of a bank in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, received the New Year "good start" performance task assigned by her branch. "If deposits on a given day show negative growth compared with the previous day, all staff stay to work overtime until deposits show positive growth. Assessments are conducted once every 5 days, and those who fail to meet performance standards will have their performance pay deducted and be interviewed."

　　Considering that failing to meet performance standards will lead to pay deductions and affect career development, some employees, in order to keep their "rice bowls," have no choice but to take on performance tasks beyond their own duties, and even pay out of their own pockets to "work at a loss."

　　The reporter's interviews found that the arbitrary expansion of performance assessment targets and content does not occur only in the banking industry. Li Yachen, a pharmacist at a community hospital in Langfang, Hebei Province, told the reporter that medical staff's performance pay is linked to the hospital's revenue and working hours. "Our department has 4 days off per month. The department director says that those who rest contribute less and should have their performance pay deducted."

　　For some time now, news of employees encountering "bizarre" assessments has frequently attracted attention. In October 2023, a news item titled "Woman works full attendance for 1 month, salary only 257 yuan" trended on social media. Ms. Yan, a receptionist at a training institution in Xinxiang, Henan Province, said that due to assessment reasons such as negative growth in student enrollment, she had 4,100 yuan deducted and took home only 257 yuan. Ms. Yan believes that she does not undertake sales tasks or teach classes, that the assessment is unrelated to her work content, and that the pay deduction is unreasonable.

　　In November 2023, a video circulated widely online showing sanitation workers in Haidian District, Beijing, chopping up cabbage to pass it off as kitchen waste. The subdistrict where they worked reported that because the worker had not completed the kitchen waste sorting task by the end of the month, he used cabbage from the canteen as kitchen waste. "Absurd! Sanitation workers also have to bear assessment tasks"; "Not enough garbage, so cabbage makes up the difference"... The site's assessment of sanitation workers and kitchen waste triggered discussion and questioning among netizens.

　　Forced to 'Compete' on Data Rather Than Compare Quality

　　In performance assessments, are data levels the only standard? Song Zhuanxia, who majored in economics and has worked at a bank for 5 years, has hidden concerns about her employer's performance assessment process. "Blindly pursuing impressive performance data smacks of formalism and one-sided pursuit of data. In the long run, it may bring risks to employers and also have a major impact on the industry."

　　In January 2021, algorithm engineer Li Yan had his labor relationship terminated by a company in Beijing during his probation period. One of the reasons listed by the company was that ordinary engineers complete 100 to 200 lines of code per day, and Li Yan should at least reach the median level, namely 150 lines per day, whereas Li Yan completed only 422 lines of code in total during a probation period of more than 70 days. The Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, which heard the case, held that the company had not agreed on assessment standards with the employee in advance, and ruled that the company pay Li Yan 36,000 yuan in compensation for illegal termination of the labor contract.

　　"The standard for measuring the quality of programs and code should be whether problems can be solved efficiently." Wang Bowei, a programmer at an internet company in Xi'an, said frankly that his company links performance assessments to the number of lines of code and requires employees in development positions to write 120 lines of code per day. "Something that could be done with one line of code is deliberately written in dozens of lines to pad the data. Such assessments force everyone to 'compete' on data rather than compare quality."

　　"Under distorted views of performance and assessment methods, who can work with peace of mind?" Liu Yonglin revealed that many of his colleagues had long been complaining bitterly about such "misplaced" performance assessments, and quite a few chose to look for other jobs.

　　"Arbitrarily expanding the scope of performance assessment targets, setting assessment indicators at will, and 'everyone takes the blame' style assessments will trigger workplace 'involution' and 'internal damage' for employers." Fan Lina, associate professor at the School of Trade Union Studies at the China University of Labor Relations, believes that such assessments will cause those being assessed to spend all day revolving around assessment indicators, easily leading to employee dissatisfaction and intensifying conflicts, departing from the original purpose of the system design, and being unconducive to stimulating team enthusiasm.

　　Assessment Targets and Content Should Match Job Responsibilities

　　In the view of Fan Wei, professor at the School of Labor Economics at Capital University of Economics and Business, the goal of performance assessment should be to encourage employees to work actively and improve management efficiency. Assessments should have clear goals and orientation and avoid "greed for more."

　　"Performance assessments cannot be decided 'off the top of one's head.'" Fan Lina believes that employers should give full play to the role of employees' congresses and safeguard employees' rights to be informed, to participate, to express themselves, and to make suggestions. At the same time, assessment targets and content should be reasonable, and employers should clarify whether the assessment target is an individual, a team, or a department, and specific performance indicators should be linked to the employer's strategic planning and business.

　　"The assessment content and weight distribution should take into account employees' job levels and the importance of their positions, and should correspond to each other and be proportionate." Speaking of setting performance assessment targets and content, Fan Wei pointed out that direct relevance to job responsibilities, the reasonableness of performance standards, and the democratic and open nature of assessment procedures should all be key considerations. "For tasks outside one's own duties, employees must not be forced to complete them or have performance assessment standards set arbitrarily. Special-work performance indicators must not be arbitrarily assigned to employees not in those positions."

　　Fan Lina agrees. "Assessments of senior employees should focus on long-term goals and the achievement of results; assessments of middle-level employees should focus on the implementation of plans under long-term results; assessments of grassroots employees can focus on short-term results, tasks, and the standardization of process behavior."

　　"The prerequisite for employers to conduct performance assessments is not violating labor laws and regulations or existing agreements in labor contracts. Assessments need to be carried out according to business needs, and assessment targets and content must be determined." Zhang Aidong, a lawyer at Guangdong Yaowen Law Firm, said that employers should protect employees' lawful rights and interests during the performance assessment process and pay attention to balancing employer efficiency and employee rights and interests.