[realshowbiz]

This comes off as desperate.

The sad truth is hardly anyone truly cares what you are doing at work. Really, think about how much you truly care what your peers do day-to-day.

Your boss and co-workers care about:

a) results

b) not having to deal with bad/negative/pita personalties

c) avoiding crisis

Pull your weight, be helpful, and if you have a boss micromanaging you it’s time to update the resume, not do more work to justify your existence.

[nlh]

“This comes off as desperate”

I think this is exactly wrong. This kind of response is what people often fear when it comes to self-promotion. And it certainly may be what you fear (but I’m not you so I can’t say for sure), but I can assure you (and others out there) that it is not desperate to look after your interests and make sure the hard work you do - visible and invisible - gets recognized.

What I think you’re saying is addressed by the author in her post - that good work will automatically be recognized on its merits alone and that it’s desperate to go above and beyond that.

And in many companies this is the case (and has been since work began). But the author’s whole point is that it is actually ok - and not desperate - to make sure your work gets recognized outside the scope of the normal “big projects get visibility” way things often work out.

[realshowbiz]

I respectfully disagree. I think good work and humility speak for themselves.

[afarrell]

This is why companies never spend money on advertising.

[_____s]

On some level, that is true, but when it comes to performance reviews and such, as the post mentions, it is very easy for your manager(s) to forget some specific things done over a period of time, forget their impact, etc. Even you may forget specific things that were done in a, say, 6 month period.

Besides that, it's also a good reminder for your own self to recap the work you've done in a specific period of time, notice your growth (or lack of any growth), etc. I've personally seen pretty good results with a similar approach.

[afarrell]

> think about how much you truly care what your peers do day-to-day

Right, which is exactly why, when it comes time for the 2x-yearly performance review, its important to be able to talk about what you've been doing for the past year. Otherwise, people haven't necessarily noticed the results you've achieved or the crisis you've proactively avoided.

[echelon]

This works great for someone as fearless and confident as you. Not everyone is a champion of themselves. Most people I know in this profession do not know how to toot their own horn or sing praises of their deeds. If you don't do that, it's easy to disappear into the woodwork, because others are quite busy enough themselves.

[anaphor]

Yeah, if you have to constantly remind everyone why you shouldn't be fired, that doesn't sound like a very fun job to me.

[ghettoimp]

If management is looking for people to fire, and you have to somehow defend yourself and/or throw coworkers under the bus, then yes, that's pretty sad and dysfunctional. But that may not be the right way to view this.

You'll probably agree that it's valuable to you for your immediate and upper management to understand what you do for them, why it benefits the company and makes them look good, and why you're incredibly great at it. If they understand this in a deep way, they're much more likely to respect your opinion and work to keep you happy.

It'd be nice if you could just keep your head down, work hard, and expect management to notice that you're doing great and important work. But that will never happen. They're busy people. They don't really understand what you're doing and struggling with, or why you're doing it this way versus that way.

So it's up to you to educate them. You can tell your story better than anyone else, because you're the only one who really knows it...