Everywhere I worked at in the past 20 years - from startups to fortune 50 companies this was/is a thing. Large companies do this "by the book" with HR-imposed

Everywhere I worked at in the past 20 years - from startups to fortune 50 companies this was/is a thing. Large companies do this "by the book" with HR-imposed bell curve type quotas (that they are trying hard to hide) with ~80% of the employees getting an average rating/raise, ~10% getting below average rating/raise, "top" 10% or so - getting a higher but also capped raises. Smaller/less "formal" companies tend to reward/"punish" (you're still getting a raise but it's small) based on individual contributions. So yes this is definitely a reality of the "corporate life".