First of all, students lack the desire to learn, and they simply complete their assignments to receive credit for a passing grade rather than genuinely engage with the course material.
We might fear failing an exam at school because our parents told us that we would never succeed, or we heard the exam was hard or perhaps we failed a previous one.
Watching bored, paranoid concubines waiting for the emperor's summons, the penny drops: this is a workplace drama, and these employees are failing a performance review.