Federal supervisors would be limited in how many employees they can rate as above average in their annual performance reviews, under a draft regulatory proposal circulated by the Office of Personnel Management.
This isn’t anything new. As a manager for the FAA for many years we were limited to the number of awards we could give out for exceptional and outstanding ratings. Awards are often funded by not filling vacant FTE positions until the end of the fiscal year. The savings in salary and benefits were then distributed to supervisors to award their best performers and for general cash awards for specific accomplishments.