stack rank

English

Noun

stack rank (plural stack ranks)

1. (business) A ranking of employees conducted in order to identify and oust the lowest performers in a company or organization.
   • 2013 August 26, David Auerbach, “Tales of an Ex–Microsoft Manager”, in Slate‎^[1], archived from the original on 2023-01-24:

     Eventually, the vice presidents would have to bargain among themselves for how many bonuses and raises they would get for their entire organizations, then ration them out according to the stack rank.

   • 2015 May 4, Andrew Hill, “Relegation fear works on the pitch but not in the office”, in Financial Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 2022-05-01:

     Yahoo — which puts employees in one of five "buckets", from "greatly exceeded" goals, down to "missed" targets — says its system is not a stack rank. But according to Nicholas Carlson’s recent book, the effects were the same.

   • 2022 March 24, John Pierce, “Recruiting The Best Talent: Strategies To Implement In 2022”, in Forbes‎^[3], archived from the original on 2022-04-15:

     The first time a person is No. 1 in the stack rank versus their peers, a light turns on. The first time a person tastes a large bonus, a light turns on. For every "first time," a light turns on. Once you taste success, you want to repeat, repeat and repeat.

Verb

stack rank (third-person singular simple present stack ranks, present participle stack ranking, simple past and past participle stack ranked)

1. (business) To organize in a stack rank.
   • 2021 June 21, Katherine Anne Long, “Internal Amazon documents shed light on how company pressures out 6% of office workers”, in The Seattle Times‎^[4], archived from the original on 2022-12-14:

     "We do not, nor have we ever, stack ranked our employees. This is not a practice that Amazon uses," said spokesperson Jaci Anderson, in an email. She said the goal of the company’s performance review process is to "give employees more information and insights to continue to grow in their careers at Amazon."

   • 2022 March 17, Kara Swisher, “Yuri Milner's Russian Clapback”, in The New York Times‎^[5], archived from the original on 2022-06-12:

     People talk about a hybrid workplace — mixing virtual and more "intentional" in-person gatherings rather than having a full-time physical workplace or a full-time virtual one. But others think it will depend on the employee and their performance, so it is a good idea to stack rank your workers?

   • 2022 December 28, Jack Kelly, “Should CEOs And C-Suite Executives Be Let Go Before Laying Off Workers?”, in Forbes‎^[6], archived from the original on 2023-01-27:

     Just as companies put workers on performance improvement plans or stack rank them, executives must be held accountable to the same policies.

   • 2023 January 17, Zoe Schiffer, Casey Newton, Alex Heath, “Inside Elon Musk's "extremely hardcore" Twitter”, in The Verge‎^[7], archived from the original on 2023-01-27:

     At ten that same night, they told managers they should "stack rank" their teams, a common but cold method of evaluation that forces managers to designate their lowest performers.

2. (by extension) To rank something by order of importance.
   • 2019 September 19, Allison Duncan, quoting Christiane Lemieux, “The 26 most essential apps and devices every entrepreneur needs in their toolbox, according to founders and CEOs”, in Business Insider‎^[8], archived from the original on 2021-10-09:

     It houses my daily brain dump of everything that needs to get done that day, where I can then visually stack-rank in order of priority and timelines.

   • 2020 February 6, Theodore Schleifer, Rani Molla, “Big Tech opponent Bernie Sanders raises more money from Big Tech employees than anyone else”, in Vox‎^[9], archived from the original on 2022-12-19:

     Looking at contributions from workers at five large companies doesn't tell the complete story of Silicon Valley's financial support. But it offers one concrete way to stack-rank how the "tech industry" — so nebulously defined — is splitting when it comes to political support.

   • 2022 December 30, Mathew Elenjickal, “What Decisions Should Shape The Supply Chain In 2023”, in Forbes‎^[10], archived from the original on 2023-01-12:

     Take this process as an opportunity to develop your supply chain team and empower them to help stack rank where investments are needed.

Alternative forms

• stack-rank

Derived terms

• stack ranking

See also

• rank and yank