"...because they all understood intuitively that they would be fired if they ever did. Also, past performance is not indicative of future results." So it woul

"...because they all understood intuitively that they would be fired if they ever did. Also, past performance is not indicative of future results." So it would be zero effective. Employees cannot trust their employer to act ethically, at any level of management, ever. Full stop. Every measurement that could be used to influence management will be gamed. The employee can't know whether their manager is asking out of genuine concern, or due to a top-down directive to identify stressed workers, probably so they can be fired first. If you want to know if the employees are stressed or unhappy, ask via an anonymizing third-party, such as their union rep.