Back in the 00s, I played cards periodically with a friend-of-friend. He showed up one Friday and told all of us a story about how he's doing so well that his manager recommended him for a special 8-week program to improve his performance, with a checkpoint at the 4-week mark and the end of the program.

That's right, he was being put on a PIP (at risk of termination) and internalized it that this was a perq/reward program for outstanding performance.