Flip side: engineers who curry favor without delivering value can't hide it quite as easily. Those who do their jobs without sucking up have a chance for recognition.
It's pretty cynical to view the person who is helping others get unstuck as "currying favor".
In every place I've worked, the person who has helped me get unstuck has always been one of the most productive and talented members of the team. If they weren't, why would I need their help?
A guy at my job is a gamer and describes it as "buffing the group." Just as in a game, the healer could be the team MVP, but if you measure DPS you are never going to realize it.
Not what I'm saying. I'm saying there are plenty of terrible engineers coasting and this will catch them.
Edit: I've been top of regular productivity charts AND the unanimous answer to "who do you go to to get unstuck?" at at least one company you've heard of. Management regularly promoted the suck ups. Read something like Blind and you'll know how prevalent this is.
Well I take your point and trust that you are productive and well respected by your peers. I guess you mentioning that the flip side of the false negatives is the true negatives (people with low performance metrics who haven't been fired yet due to kissing up) is a correct response. Sorry for the misunderstanding.
I thought your flip side was an alternative perspective on those who help others get unstuck, not on those caught by the HR performance metrics filter.
I'm happy to get people unstuck. It's the best for everyone and the company. I hate when a "growth hacker" moves a meaningless metric an insignificant amount and gets a bonus so some middle manager can get up and claim a "win" that makes more work for me and my team but costs the company money.
In every place I've worked, the person who has helped me get unstuck has always been one of the most productive and talented members of the team. If they weren't, why would I need their help?