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I sympathize with situations like this. If anyone reading is in a similar boat, asking for positive written feedback from the teams you work with and including

I sympathize with situations like this. If anyone reading is in a similar boat, asking for positive written feedback from the teams you work with and including that in your performance review is one way to get recognized for high impact low visibility work. It sucks that you have to go out of your way to gain recognition and it won’t always work but that can be how it is in large companies.

dasil003 6y ago
This is good advice, I'll add one more thing: make sure your manager values what you are doing. If they do not then you are headed for trouble regardless. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that your manager relationship is probably the single most important factor to optimize for in any job. If you don't have mutual trust and respect it will lead to distortions, and in the worst cases can create long-term psychological corruption leaving one cynical and unable to trust their own better instincts.
- idiocrat 6y ago
  Yes, and you should always work the manager's manager. This is a win-win for everybody in the line.
  - cpach 6y ago
    How do you mean? Feel free to expand on this advice :)
    - PakG1 6y ago
      Figure out ways to make the person two levels above you to also understand and appreciate what you do.
      - cutemonster 6y ago
        What are ways to do that? What comes to my mind is taking with him/her at the coffee machine but I guess that's not what you'd think of / suggest
        PakG1 6y ago
        Hahaha, of course, if I really knew the answer to that, I'm sure I'd be doing much better than I am. :D But I've sometimes had success with the following: - get attached to high-visibility problems or initiatives, which admittedly also have higher risk in making you look bad - write up really good reports/proposals on what you're doing and why it's important; good writeups sometimes get passed around and shown as example to the rest of the company; really good writing skills are underappreciated by many technical people - do presentations about your work, knock it out of the park when someone important is in the room These opportunities are like waves for surfers. Surfers spend a lot of time just waiting for the right wave, but when the wave finally comes, the surfer better be ready. It's like the stories of Apple employees being ready with a summary if Steve Jobs bumped into them in the elevator and asked them what they're working on. Gotta be ready.
        cutemonster 6y ago
        Thanks, this seems actionable. What if a company set aside a day each month and told everyone to do this -- maybe could give insight into what everyone does, ppl learn from each other, and invisible work gets noticed? > write ... reports ... on what you're doing and why it's important Almost like content marketing for a startup, but instead for oneself inside a company
        PakG1 6y ago
        I think the biggest thing honestly is just having a good manager. If you don't have a good manager, and they don't support making you visible, it's quite the fight to become visible.
  - innagadadavida 6y ago
    Often times the ratings, bonus and "calibration" is done at a senior manager / director level. So if you have no visibility in those circles, you'll not fare well. Often times, your direct manager won't have any say in this matter and the top bosses will need to take decisions based on politics and retention and other considerations. Another thing to keep in mind is that your manager might not want you to move around and giving you average ratings will help. I'm onto my third big project and each of them shipped with my solo effort (but on the backend). It's wildly successfully and impacted 10s of millions of people but the ratings always make it seem that what I thought was exceptional contributions were "expected"! Thankfully the bonus/money is decent.
    - cutemonster 6y ago
      > your manager might not want you to move around and giving you average ratings will help So, the more good work one does, the lower one's rating can be? (But not too low of course) That's interesting and a bit counter intuitive like so many other things What about people the manager wants to leave? Might s/he give them higher ratings?
- momokoko 6y ago
  Personally I’d rather maintain my self respect and integrity. Sucking up to a manager is exactly the kind of toxic bureaucracy that destroys companies and ultimately societies. Do good work. Do the best work you can. If you want to be Machiavelli, go into politics.
  - RussianCow 6y ago
    No one said anything about "sucking up" to your manager at all. In fact, my interpretation of the parent was more akin to making sure that you can have open, two-way communication with your manager, so that they understand the importance of the work you are doing. A bad manager (or one that simply doesn't see eye-to-eye with you) can ruin an otherwise fulfilling job, no matter what you do.
  - PakG1 6y ago
    I see this attitude too often among technical people. They think that having a good relationship with someone means sucking up and losing one's integrity, when in fact, it just means having a good relationship. Having a good relationship with my wife doesn't mean I'm sucking up to my wife. We love and respect each other because we value each other. I don't love my manager, and my people don't love me, but we better respect each other and know how to have good relationships with each other. Technical people who have difficulty having good relationships with others in the workplace need to understand that they can be difficult people to work with, and that they often create drama due to their misconceptions about what relationships are. People who have good relationship skills can also tell the difference between having a good relationship with mutual respect, as opposed to actually sucking up to some narcissist. All technical people need to be able to have that level of relationship wisdom, the ability to see the difference. Sadly, and this is the most unfortunate part, people who are bad at it often think that they're good at it, and so they don't understand why they're being attacked when they're not actually being attacked; then they get angry and disgruntled, creating what was a preventable situation.
  - dasil003 6y ago
    You wholly misunderstood me. I can see you like the blunt approach so let me be clear: if your manager does not value what you are doing then quit your job.
jaggederest 6y ago
I go maybe a step further: I send out project-specific surveys that have things like impact metrics (How significant has the impact of Project X been, in terms of dollars, hours of effort, or deals won), classic NPS type questions (If a similar situation arose in the future, how likely would you be to reach out to me/my team for help?), and questions that dive into how the project went, how it was organized, and more. I really should turn that into a business now that I think about it.
- licebmi__at__ 6y ago
  I worked in a company where we had this kind of surveys, but there was a catch; every feedback that was not excellent, was considered bad performance. So yeah, not so great place.
  - jaggederest 6y ago
    Oof yeah I always make sure mine capture reality and are genuinely anonymous to the degree I can. Mandatory positive feedback is super gross as a modus operandi

dasil003 6y ago

This is good advice, I'll add one more thing: make sure your manager values what you are doing. If they do not then you are headed for trouble regardless. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that your manager relationship is probably the single most important factor to optimize for in any job. If you don't have mutual trust and respect it will lead to distortions, and in the worst cases can create long-term psychological corruption leaving one cynical and unable to trust their own better instincts.

idiocrat 6y ago
Yes, and you should always work the manager's manager. This is a win-win for everybody in the line.
- cpach 6y ago
  How do you mean? Feel free to expand on this advice :)
  - PakG1 6y ago
    Figure out ways to make the person two levels above you to also understand and appreciate what you do.
    - cutemonster 6y ago
      What are ways to do that? What comes to my mind is taking with him/her at the coffee machine but I guess that's not what you'd think of / suggest
      - PakG1 6y ago
        Hahaha, of course, if I really knew the answer to that, I'm sure I'd be doing much better than I am. :D But I've sometimes had success with the following: - get attached to high-visibility problems or initiatives, which admittedly also have higher risk in making you look bad - write up really good reports/proposals on what you're doing and why it's important; good writeups sometimes get passed around and shown as example to the rest of the company; really good writing skills are underappreciated by many technical people - do presentations about your work, knock it out of the park when someone important is in the room These opportunities are like waves for surfers. Surfers spend a lot of time just waiting for the right wave, but when the wave finally comes, the surfer better be ready. It's like the stories of Apple employees being ready with a summary if Steve Jobs bumped into them in the elevator and asked them what they're working on. Gotta be ready.
        cutemonster 6y ago
        Thanks, this seems actionable. What if a company set aside a day each month and told everyone to do this -- maybe could give insight into what everyone does, ppl learn from each other, and invisible work gets noticed? > write ... reports ... on what you're doing and why it's important Almost like content marketing for a startup, but instead for oneself inside a company
        PakG1 6y ago
        I think the biggest thing honestly is just having a good manager. If you don't have a good manager, and they don't support making you visible, it's quite the fight to become visible.
- innagadadavida 6y ago
  Often times the ratings, bonus and "calibration" is done at a senior manager / director level. So if you have no visibility in those circles, you'll not fare well. Often times, your direct manager won't have any say in this matter and the top bosses will need to take decisions based on politics and retention and other considerations. Another thing to keep in mind is that your manager might not want you to move around and giving you average ratings will help. I'm onto my third big project and each of them shipped with my solo effort (but on the backend). It's wildly successfully and impacted 10s of millions of people but the ratings always make it seem that what I thought was exceptional contributions were "expected"! Thankfully the bonus/money is decent.
  - cutemonster 6y ago
    > your manager might not want you to move around and giving you average ratings will help So, the more good work one does, the lower one's rating can be? (But not too low of course) That's interesting and a bit counter intuitive like so many other things What about people the manager wants to leave? Might s/he give them higher ratings?
momokoko 6y ago
Personally I’d rather maintain my self respect and integrity. Sucking up to a manager is exactly the kind of toxic bureaucracy that destroys companies and ultimately societies. Do good work. Do the best work you can. If you want to be Machiavelli, go into politics.
- RussianCow 6y ago
  No one said anything about "sucking up" to your manager at all. In fact, my interpretation of the parent was more akin to making sure that you can have open, two-way communication with your manager, so that they understand the importance of the work you are doing. A bad manager (or one that simply doesn't see eye-to-eye with you) can ruin an otherwise fulfilling job, no matter what you do.
- PakG1 6y ago
  I see this attitude too often among technical people. They think that having a good relationship with someone means sucking up and losing one's integrity, when in fact, it just means having a good relationship. Having a good relationship with my wife doesn't mean I'm sucking up to my wife. We love and respect each other because we value each other. I don't love my manager, and my people don't love me, but we better respect each other and know how to have good relationships with each other. Technical people who have difficulty having good relationships with others in the workplace need to understand that they can be difficult people to work with, and that they often create drama due to their misconceptions about what relationships are. People who have good relationship skills can also tell the difference between having a good relationship with mutual respect, as opposed to actually sucking up to some narcissist. All technical people need to be able to have that level of relationship wisdom, the ability to see the difference. Sadly, and this is the most unfortunate part, people who are bad at it often think that they're good at it, and so they don't understand why they're being attacked when they're not actually being attacked; then they get angry and disgruntled, creating what was a preventable situation.
- dasil003 6y ago
  You wholly misunderstood me. I can see you like the blunt approach so let me be clear: if your manager does not value what you are doing then quit your job.

jaggederest 6y ago

I go maybe a step further: I send out project-specific surveys that have things like impact metrics (How significant has the impact of Project X been, in terms of dollars, hours of effort, or deals won), classic NPS type questions (If a similar situation arose in the future, how likely would you be to reach out to me/my team for help?), and questions that dive into how the project went, how it was organized, and more. I really should turn that into a business now that I think about it.

licebmi__at__ 6y ago
I worked in a company where we had this kind of surveys, but there was a catch; every feedback that was not excellent, was considered bad performance. So yeah, not so great place.
- jaggederest 6y ago
  Oof yeah I always make sure mine capture reality and are genuinely anonymous to the degree I can. Mandatory positive feedback is super gross as a modus operandi