It started with a single change in how employee performance was measured. By the time it was over, almost the entire department was gone.
One of Reddit’s most upvoted workplace stories didn’t come from a CEO or thought leader — it came from an everyday employee who saw how a company’s obsession with metrics completely backfired.
Let’s walk through what happened, why it struck a nerve with thousands, and what it reveals about modern work culture.
The Setup: New Rules. Same Old Cluelessness.
The post starts with management rolling out a new “performance scorecard.” Employees were told their jobs now depended on meeting arbitrary numbers that made little sense in context.
“They gave us metrics that punished teamwork, ignored nuance, and rewarded gaming the system.”
Morale dropped. Confusion spread. And nobody — not even management — seemed to know what counted as success anymore.
When Metrics Turn Against the People They’re Meant to Measure
Employees tried to keep up. But the numbers didn’t reward quality — they rewarded fast clicks, robotic speed, and avoiding hard tasks.
“Suddenly, helping your coworker made you fall behind. Taking an extra minute to solve a tough problem? Penalized.”
As one commenter put it: the company stopped measuring value and started measuring activity. And activity ≠ productivity.
Enter Malicious Compliance — and the Collapse That Followed
Frustrated and fed up, employees followed the rules exactly as written. They stopped helping each other. They refused to take on complex tickets. They let small fires burn because fast completion scores mattered more than actual solutions.
“They wanted us to hit numbers. So we did — at the cost of everything else.”
Within weeks, customer satisfaction crashed. Teams fell apart. Leadership scrambled. And then… came the layoffs.
Read more: Rejected for Culture Fit
Reddit Reacts: “This Is Why No One Trusts Corporate Metrics”
Thousands of Redditors chimed in with similar stories:
- Schools using test scores to shame teachers
- Sales jobs that fired top performers for “low call volume”
- Managers ignoring human context in favor of spreadsheets
One user summed it up: “The more a company obsesses over measurement, the more it forgets what it’s actually supposed to do.”
So… Are Metrics Bad? Not Always. But Context Is Everything.
Metrics aren’t the enemy. Lack of judgment is.
When KPIs are used with:
- zero flexibility
- no human input
- and no room for complexity
…they don’t guide performance — they destroy it.
“Measure what matters. But don’t confuse measurements for meaning.”
Read more: Workplace Boundaries Gone Wrong
What You Can Learn (Even If You’re Not the Boss)
If you’re an employee:
- Watch for signs that metrics are hurting more than helping
- Document your work beyond the numbers
- Speak up when you see unfair systems (even if quietly)
If you’re in management:
- Metrics should support good work, not replace it
- Don’t punish people for acting human
- And listen — the people closest to the work often know more than the people setting the targets
Have a workplace story where the numbers ruined the reality?
