TikTok Tells Managers: Be Brutally Honest in Performance Reviews

[tradelikepro]

Forget the sugarcoating—TikTok is officially over "nice guy" management. According to Business Insider, the company has issued a new directive: stop protecting underperformers during performance reviews.

Managers are being told to rate employees more strictly, even if it leads to uncomfortable conversations. The move is part of a broader cultural reset inside TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, where blunt feedback is being reframed as moral responsibility.
🧾 What’s Changing?

In updated internal review materials obtained by BI, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is quoted saying:

“People who always try to be nice to everyone aren’t necessarily the most ethical.”

Translation: if you give everyone the same grade to avoid conflict, you’re actually being unfair—especially to top performers who deserve better recognition.

Managers are now urged not to average things out, even if they believe they're doing it to “keep the peace.”
The Scoring System

TikTok uses an 8-grade review scale, from:

F ("Unsatisfactory")
to

O ("Outstanding")

But here’s the twist:
There are hard caps on how many high ratings can be given.

In one team:

Only 5% of employees can receive one of the top 3 ratings

Only 10% can be given one of the top 4 ratings

Managers initially assign scores based on self-assessments and peer feedback, but department heads have the final say—and they can override those scores.
🧠 Why It Matters

According to leadership expert Deborah Grayson Riegel, giving honest feedback—even when it’s tough—is critical to good management.

Soft reviews, she warns, lead to:

High performers stuck fixing the mistakes of lower performers

Slower team progress

Wasted resources on people who might not be a fit

And in her words, that “pulls down everyone.”
Across Big Tech: A Tougher Tone

TikTok isn’t alone. The whole tech industry seems to be shifting toward more brutally honest performance culture:

Microsoft (April 2025): Underperformers were asked to join a performance improvement program—or leave with a severance.

Google: Went the other way—allowing more employees to earn higher scores to boost motivation.

Meta: Told managers to start assigning more “does not meet expectations” grades—right before laying off 3,600 employees to “raise the bar.”

🧠 TL;DR

TikTok is pushing managers to rate fairly, not politely

Capped high-performance scores limit how many top ratings teams can give

The goal: protect high performers and hold low performers accountable

Broader trend: Big Tech is prioritizing productivity over popularity

What Do You Think?

Is brutal honesty better than soft encouragement?

Do strict performance caps motivate people—or just stress them out?

Should companies force out low performers or try to upskill them?

Let’s hear your thoughts. Because whether you're a manager or a team member, the era of “everyone’s doing fine” might be ending.

[Nahid10]

T’ss important to question whether TikTok’s emphasis on uncompromising candour enhances performance—or simply fosters fear and attrition. Scoring loops and quotas: Managers are ordered to limit top ratings (only ~5% can receive the highest scores) and assign more low ratings, even at risk of triggering PIPs or severance offers for underperformers
HR Grapevine+8Business Insider+8Business Insider+8 The Times of India.
Potential fallout: While the goal is to elevate top talent, many current and former employees describe the system as arbitrary and anxiety-inducing, eroding morale rather than encouraging excellence