In my experience, managers are actually more constrained during the annual review cycle. They tend to have very specific quotas for promotions and raises. One l

In my experience, managers are actually more constrained during the annual review cycle. They tend to have very specific quotas for promotions and raises. One large company I worked for literally had a bell curve for raises that managers had to fit their employees into. Every meaningful raise I've gotten has come outside of the annual process.