Oh it's even worse when senior leadership gives you KPIs. I remember when I was a fresh face college grad working at Dell Services.
One of my KPIs was about selling more headcount to the client.
None of the KPIs that came down from on high made any sense. I could be the best junior engineer in the company and it would have no impact on my performance review.
Irrelevant management KPIs at least tell you what management cares about.
"I'll know it when I see it" iterations of bringing different "no not that" KPIs to management is frustrating in the opposite direction.
Ultimately management wants to set the tone in both scenarios, at least when giving you dumb KPIs they have done some work and volunteered information.
One of my KPIs was about selling more headcount to the client.
None of the KPIs that came down from on high made any sense. I could be the best junior engineer in the company and it would have no impact on my performance review.