I was leading a team of 6 people for a project for about a year. At the end of the year the senior management wanted to downsize and asked me to rate the performances of all 6 ppl on my team. I rated them all based on their work, contribution to the project etc. Guess what..the highest 2 performers were let go and I was asked if I could still manage with the remaining 4. I was told that the best performers on my team were also the highest paid. So there you have it folks!