[jcommin]

I hate review time. You could have a personal best (year) and if the company is doesn't meet their goals, raises are few or non existent. You could have an average year in a record breaking company year and get an average raise. Typically raises are budgeted: say an average of 5%. Lets say there are 10 people in your department with the same pay grade. Using John's percentile analogy, an average review gets 5%, below average maybe 4.5, above average 5.5. My point is this: the spread is tight because of the defined budget. It's hard to reward exemplary work given the constraints.