---
title: "The Adverse Effects of Selecting Outstanding Employees"
description: "At year-end, companies hold annual meetings and often select outstanding employees. While bosses intend to recognize and reward top performers and set an example for others, this practice can backfire, as many non-selected employees feel denied, question the selection's fairness, and even ostracize the chosen ones. The article suggests alternative recognition methods to avoid these negative effects."
author: "潘文富"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-01-30"
language: "en"
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# The Adverse Effects of Selecting Outstanding Employees

> At year-end, companies hold annual meetings and often select outstanding employees. While bosses intend to recognize and reward top performers and set an example for others, this practice can backfire, as many non-selected employees feel denied, question the selection's fairness, and even ostracize the chosen ones. The article suggests alternative recognition methods to avoid these negative effects.

At year-end, it's also the time when companies hold annual meetings in clusters. In the annual work summary, the selection of outstanding employees is often arranged. In the boss's view, the company's development comes from the collective efforts of employees. For those who perform exceptionally well, it is natural to give them relevant recognition and rewards at both economic and spiritual levels.
The boss's starting point is not complicated: **on the one hand, it is to affirm and reward outstanding employees; on the other hand, it is also to set a benchmark, thereby driving more employees to learn from outstanding employees, forming a positive and upward atmosphere among the employee group, so that everyone can make progress together and contribute more to the company.**
Interpersonal conflicts mainly arise from asymmetric understanding. What the boss thinks is one thing, and what employees think is another. Regarding the selection of outstanding employees, not all employees think the same as the boss. Some have deviated thoughts, some have twisted thoughts, and even worse, there can be adverse effects.
**The employees selected as advanced are naturally a minority. So, how do the majority of employees who were not selected view this advanced selection?**
First, the boss selects the outstanding ones; naturally, those not selected are considered not outstanding. Corresponding to praise is denial. In some employees' eyes, their value and contributions have not been affirmed or recognized by the company, so they naturally feel uncomfortable.
Second, are the selected outstanding employees truly outstanding? The boss's view of employees may not be real, but employees' view of each other is often more real and comprehensive. Is the performance of outstanding employees real? Is there any falsification? Is there any overextension? Is there any deception of customers? Or was the market foundation already good? Or is it purely a matter of luck?
If there is water in the excellence behind this, then employees have to doubt the boss's judgment, or doubt the value orientation that the boss advocates. Then in the future, we might as well learn to fool the boss, since the boss is blind, or only cares about results, not the process.
Third, most people are not that broad-minded. When facing the progress of colleagues around them, there are really not many who are sincerely happy for them. Others' progress means their own regression. Of course, Chinese people have a tradition of not admitting mistakes. Facing their own regression, admitting mistakes is impossible. Then, they often emphasize various objective reasons, such as poor market environment, difficult clients, insufficient company investment, weak brand power, too strong competitors, and so on. In short, they want to shirk responsibility and emphasize that their incompetence is not entirely their own fault.
Fourth, they feel somewhat unhappy with the colleagues who received the outstanding award. When the boss is present, they don't say much, but after the boss leaves, they often show various forms of overt politeness and covert sarcasm towards the outstanding employees, such as: "Oh, outstanding employee, the bonus should be quite a lot, right?" "It seems you're about to be promoted soon." "Next, they'll give you shares, right?" And even later, when there are hard or tiring tasks, or holiday duty, they naturally look for this outstanding employee. You are outstanding, a benchmark, so who else would we look for?
For outstanding employees, being selected as outstanding is not a good thing either. First, they feel that the looks from other colleagues are different, and the polite words spoken carry knives. In work distribution, they suffer more losses. In terms of colleague relationships, everyone begins to distance themselves from them, and they become increasingly isolated. Some employees who cannot bear it even resign after being selected as outstanding. Even if they stay, they have to rethink whether they want this outstanding title in the future, lower their standards, keep pace with everyone else, and maintain harmony. It's best not to stand out too much, as sticking out easily invites various attacks.
Personnel management work must first study human nature, especially the ugly parts of human nature. The boss's wishful thinking of using outstanding employees to drive more employees is actually unlikely to work, and may even have adverse effects. **Especially regarding employee commendation, here are a few suggestions for reference:**
1. Commendation of outstanding employees is necessary, but attention should be paid to strategies and methods to avoid harm after the commendation.
2. Public commendation is only suitable in front of new employee groups. For new employees, there will be no jealousy, and it has a good positive guiding effect.
3. If commendation is to be held in front of all employees, a different form should be used. Instead of an outstanding selection, invite relevant employees to give lectures on stage, sharing relevant technical methods with everyone, and then reward them in the form of lecture fees. In this way, it not only commends outstanding employees but also balances the views of other employees. If other employees have this ability, they can also come on stage to give lectures and receive the lecture fee.
4. Individual commendation means that the boss commends outstanding employees separately without a third party present. The reason for not letting other employees participate is also to protect outstanding employees.
5. Family commendation: The boss goes to the employee's home and commends them in front of their family members. As family members, they are genuinely happy for the employee being commended.
This article is by Pan Wenfu.
He comes from a private business owner background, having operated a family distributor company for many years, during which he also served as a business manager and trainer in several production enterprises. His research direction is the internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, management backend construction, and the integration of retired military personnel into private enterprises. He has continuously broken down over 400 topics related to internal management of private enterprises and maintains the collection of materials and updates of solutions.
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