This is common in the corporate world, and a form of stack ranking. Top of the stack = promote and give large raises, middle of the stack = keep and give small

This is common in the corporate world, and a form of stack ranking. Top of the stack = promote and give large raises, middle of the stack = keep and give small raises if any, bottom of the stack = get rid of. 4/7 says "keep" to me. Bosses often have a distribution of 4's, 5's, 6's, etc. they have to line up with their staff as per company policy. This means marking up your top performers as 4/7 sometimes to keep them from shrinking your staff. It's a bit like "buy", "strong buy", "hold" recommendations for stocks, which translate better to "hold", "buy", "sell". It's only been a month, but this metric is stupid to have, and even more stupid to share with employees. The problem with stack ranking is if you have an all-star team or an F troop in your organization. At some point you're promoting and getting rid of the wrong people. It's a subjective political metric. Workplace psychology doesn't match with it either. An average Uber driver still expects 5 stars. Give him 3 even if you believe he deserves 3, and he'll resent you. Maybe he'll refuse your ride next time if he finds out. 4/7 isn't an insult to a new hire, just an insulting metric to a workforce.