--- title: "Why Does Work Reward the Performance of Performance?" id: "782" type: "post" slug: "work-reward-performance-of-performance" published_at: "2026-08-15T08:00:40+00:00" modified_at: "2026-08-29T06:24:46+00:00" url: "https://human.ozzynothings.com/mirror/work-reward-performance-of-performance/" markdown_url: "https://human.ozzynothings.com/mirror/work-reward-performance-of-performance.md" excerpt: "The cover becomes part of the assessment. Eventually, it can become difficult to tell whether someone is being recognised for what they did or for how convincingly they made it look important." taxonomy_category: - "The Mirror" taxonomy_post_tag: - "behaviour" - "workplace" --- Tae recently wrote about being [done with being nice](https://human.ozzynothings.com/hearth/ever-thought-done-being-nice/) , and one thought from that article stayed with me: being good at workplace does not necessarily mean people will value you for it. And there is something similarly frustrating at workplace too – doing your job well does not necessarily mean people will see you as someone who is doing a good job. Sometimes you also have to look like someone who is doing a good job. You have to talk about your contribution, make your enthusiasm visible and remind people that you are there. At some point, the work itself seems to acquire a second performance. You perform the job, and then **you perform the performance**. Maybe that sounds ridiculous because it is. Yet it has become difficult to ignore. ## Because Visibility is Easier to Reward Think about the language we now use at work. A meeting can become “strategic alignment”. Helping someone can become “cross-functional collaboration”. Finishing something that was already part of your responsibilities can somehow become an “initiative”. LinkedIn has turned this into an art form. Every modest accomplishment seems to arrive wearing a much larger suit. We laugh because we recognise the exaggeration. But beneath the comedy is something less amusing: **people who are good at presenting their work tend to be easier to remember.** The person who [quietly solves problems may leave behind very little evidence](https://human.ozzynothings.com/hearth/invisible-tax-being-too-nice-why-adult-world-might-need-attitude/) of having done so. The person who talks confidently about what they have accomplished leaves an impression. And impressions are often what we have. A manager cannot see everything an employee does. Neither can a director, a colleague from another department, or someone deciding who deserves the next opportunity. So the person who knows how to make their contribution visible has an advantage. That does not make the culture any less strange. It just explains why it survives. ## Presentation as Evidence of Performance There is a difference between telling people what you have done and turning the telling itself into part of the achievement. The first seems perfectly reasonable. The second is where things become murky. At work, confidence can start standing in for competence. Enthusiasm can become evidence of commitment. And being articulate about your achievements can make those achievements feel even larger. None of this necessarily means someone is lying. But perhaps that is what makes it more uncomfortable. A person may genuinely be competent and also very good at presenting themselves. Another may be equally competent but [far less comfortable talking about their contribution](https://human.ozzynothings.com/hearth/passed-over-promotion-silent-frustration-overlooked-employee/) . Put them in the same room and the first person’s work may simply occupy more space. We are human. We notice what is placed in front of us. But there is something unsettling about a workplace gradually learning to reward the person who understands this best. **The cover becomes part of the assessment.** Eventually, it can become difficult to tell whether someone is being recognised for what they did or for how convincingly they made it look important. ## When Presentation is Weaponised I once had a new director who wanted to remove many of the older colleagues from the team. There had already been enough gestures before my appraisal that the intention was fairly obvious. Then he gave me my performance review. His assessment was not that I had failed to do my work. Quite the opposite. He acknowledged that *“I had done all my duties properly”*. But I had not *“actively promoted my achievements”*. That, he said, showed that *“I was not exactly enthusiastic about my job”*. My overall performance score became a ***“just pass”***. I still find the reasoning difficult to take seriously. If the work was done properly, what exactly was the issue? In my case, I don’t think this was simply a manager giving me useful advice about career development. There had already been a wider attempt to push older colleagues out, and the appraisal just gave him a convenient language for doing it. That is what bothers me the most about the culture. Once presentation becomes part of the definition of performance, it gives someone considerable room to decide whose version of their work deserves to count. The employee who says little can be made to look unenthusiastic. The employee who knows how to sell themselves can look ambitious. The difference may have very little to do with the work itself. ## Adapting to the Ridiculous Game Perhaps the sensible response is to learn how to play. Make your achievements visible. Speak up. Don’t assume good work will automatically be noticed. If other people are presenting themselves, don’t handicap yourself by refusing to do the same. I understand all of that. There is a difference between refusing to acknowledge reality and pretending reality does not exist. But I don’t think learning to survive a culture means we have to stop questioning it. A dog-eat-dog workplace may reward people who are more aggressive about their own interests. That does not mean we should eventually conclude that aggression is simply what professionalism looks like. If everyone learns to promote themselves because everyone else is doing it, the behaviour can become self-reinforcing. What began as an advantage becomes an expectation. What was once optional becomes part of the job. Then perhaps the employee who simply does their work begins to look unusual. Not because they have become worse at their job. Maybe the system has simply learned to exploit people who do their work without performing it – much like [the innies in Severance](https://human.ozzynothings.com/screen/severance-perfect-work-life-balance/) . And I wonder whether that is the direction we are already moving in. ## Normalising a Behaviour =/= Making it Right Maybe this is simply how workplaces evolve. Maybe visibility, personal branding and self-promotion will become as ordinary as writing a CV. Perhaps future employees will think nothing of constantly documenting their impact, cultivating their professional image and making sure every achievement has an audience. But what happens if the culture keeps moving in that direction? Do we end up with more mediocre people becoming responsible for the people who are actually brilliant at what they do, simply because they are better at being seen? Do senior leaders become increasingly detached from the difference between confidence and competence, eventually making decisions without knowing who is really capable of carrying them out? Or does something more complicated happen, where the people who are genuinely capable keep everything moving while accepting that [they may never be recognised as fairly as they should be](https://human.ozzynothings.com/mirror/when-karma-doesnt-come-how-live-with-unfairness/) ? 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