> and more to do with perception, connections, face time and ability to handle office issues better than your cohort. These things are all extremely important

> and more to do with perception, connections, face time and ability to handle office issues better than your cohort. These things are all extremely important pieces of keeping a company functioning well. To the extent that if you're good at these things and mediocre at whatever your main job is you are probably more valuable to the company (as in very literally adding more value) than someone who excels at their main job but can't cope with working in an office. If it's true that people who are good at those things are being rewarded more than people who aren't then we are actually doing pretty at basing pay on merit. Office politics are, obviously, something you need to be good at to achieve seniority in an office.