[pepper_sauce]

The modern workplace for an employee is really not designed to incentivize above average productivity. I don't claim to be an anything-X developer but I find my productivity runs in cycles. In the circumstances I've turned out high value work in a matter of hours or days, I've literally been told by colleagues to slow down because I was making them look bad, while management assume that's just how long the task takes. At the other end of the spectrum when I'm (relatively) under-performing nobody cares: that's just how long a task takes, and nobody feels threatened.

The damping effect is real.