New boss deprives hardworking employee of the yearly bonus by giving them a low-rated performance review, leading employee to forfeit all extra tasks they took on: ‘I cancelled every meeting’ 

As we all moved from 2025 to 2026 and welcomed the new year, employees all around the world had to endure their yearly performance review of their past year on the job. Usually, this review consists of an hour-long conversation with the boss, where the employee and their boss go through the different tasks, successes, and failures the employee had in the past year. Then, the boss would usually give the employee some sort of grade or ratings, and they would discuss the expectations for the new year and the new challenges ahead.

Some employees are rewarded for a successful year and a positive yearly review, while others endure it for the mere prize of getting to keep a job. It all depends on the workplace, the employee, and, of course, the boss.

In the company in the story below, the general rule is that if your boss rates your performance 'high' or 'outstanding', you get a yearly bonus. One employee had an agreement with their boss that if they took on some of the boss's responsibilities and eased his workload, he would give that employee a high review that would score them the bonus. That agreement worked out for the two of them for the last four years.

This year, however, the boss left and was replaced by a new guy. When the employee explained about the work they've been doing to him, the new boss seemed satisfied with it. But when the employee's yearly performance review rolled around, they were surprised to learn that their new boss rated them as merely 'good', so no bonus for them this year, despite all their hard work.

When the employee confronted the new boss about the poor review, they were told that the boss had higher expectations. This led the employee to decide to drop every single task they were doing so far that wasn't part of their set role. This means dropping every single task they took on to ease on their boss's role.

This week, the new boss will arrive at work and find a lot more tasks on his schedule, including everything that his employee was doing for him so far. In the meantime, the employee will be able to focus on their job and meet their boss's high expectations, and hopefully be entitled to the bonus in 2026…