Why Passive Aggression Pervades Corporate America

𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗔𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮. This is the main reason it's metastasizing inside your company:

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝘄𝘀. Power Laws state that 20% of your employees produce 80% of the results. A standard performance review has a boss or a colleague rating subordinates or peers on linear scales, say 1-10 on a number of criteria. Unfortunately linear ratings don't map to actual production.

And this is why the Passive Aggressive Employee wins.

Because Passive Aggressive Employees are not seen as directly confrontational, they are less likely to be punished by their peers and superiors for their personality in performance reviews.

All the while their productivity is inflated by linear performance ratings. Because by avoiding direct conflict and enemies, they'll likely get scored with a bunch of 8s and no zeros, thus will likely be seen as an 8/10 performer.

Compare this to the toe stepping Alpha Producer.