rank and yank

noun

A model of employee productivity in which workers are ranked into the top 20 percent, the adequate 70 percent, and the bottom 10 percent, and those in the bottom group are fired.

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Meanings

nounrank and yank (uncountable)
  1. informaluncountablebusinessA model of employee productivity in which workers are ranked into the top 20 percent, the adequate 70 percent, and the bottom 10 percent, and those in the bottom group are fired.

    Stack ranking had come into fashion after GE CEO Jack Welch used a similar system, called rank-and-yank, to turn around that company in the 1980s and 1990s.

    2015 January 2, Nicholas Carlson, “The Day Marissa Mayer's Honeymoon At Yahoo Ended”, in Business Insider, archived from the original on 24 Sep 2022
Cite this entry
APA

rank and yank. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rank%20and%20yank

MLA

“rank and yank.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rank%20and%20yank. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rank and yank,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rank%20and%20yank.

Source: rank and yank on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.