At my last job, the performance reviews had nothing to do with employee performance. As a manager, I was told which numbers to assign. It could not have been

At my last job, the performance reviews had nothing to do with employee performance. As a manager, I was told which numbers to assign. It could not have been about money, because maximum raises were about 3% (another number I was told to use). I suspect that it was to prevent employees from feeling “uppity.” I had my challenges, but was able to keep a pretty high-performing team together for decades. No thanks to my bosses, though.