360-degree feedback
360-degree feedback is the corporate ritual of allowing bosses, subordinates, and peers to anonymously broadcast their impressions like hidden microphones. Opinions gathered from all directions arrive as a cocktail of contradictions, elation, and dread. The goodwill of evaluators often transforms into unseen spears that leave quiet scars on those being reviewed. Results become metrics touted as merits while also triggering secondary disasters of gossip and anxiety. In the end the system meant to be an equal court becomes a stage for unequal power struggles.