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Comment by ravenstine | Hacker News Reader

While I really like the sentiment, I think there's a reason why people naturally don't provide much positive feedback about individuals at workplaces.

What do you really get by pointing out the good work of a coworker? A warm fuzzy feeling, to be sure. Maybe greater comradeship. But wait, who's the next person to get a promotion? Maybe it'll be the person you keep praising to management. So you'll probably have to work smarter/harder to get that same praise, hence the same chances at promotion. But you don't want to work that much harder; you're already working hard enough as it is. But that 5% raise and that "senior" title look pretty shiny. <one year later> Hey, how come nobody has been recognizing you for your good work? Meanwhile that coworker you've been praising is now your boss!

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My strategy is to pull everyone up around me all the time. If I want more money I find another job and professionally threaten to leave.

This strategy has worked great for me in the long term so far, because I have so many random connections now from every job who like me because I'm friendly. I have a reputation of pulling everyone up around me and being easy to work with because... I am.

Don't compete for a 5% raise for 25% more hours when you can get a 25% raise for 5% less hours somewhere else.

This is why I believe the best path to promotion is simply to quit and find a company that will give you the title you want.

I'm not the kind of person that gets promoted, for whatever reasons, so I've been moving up by moving sideways. It sucks, but it is what it is.

You have to be so good that they can't ignore you. Or, so good, it doesn't matter that that group of folks who remain silent are around. There will always be another group of folks who are genuine and will praise you for doing great work.

Now, the most difficult part, is when someone in position of power decides to keep silent — like your manager or another high profile individual. In that case, it's better to bounce, you don't want to work in an org that promotes those kind of people.

Peter Thiel said it best in Zero to One. I'm paraphrasing here, if a start up is not rewarding individuals based off of merit, but PR, then it's time to go.

Many people, when done a favor, want to repay it. So when you praise a person to their boss, they're more likely to be on the lookout for opportunities to praise you in return.

Speaking from my own experience, I tend to be a quiet person who doesn't say much. However, since joining my current team, and having consistently received compliments from both managers and teammates (and seen the same getting passed around to others), it has lead me to make a point of looking for opportunities to do the same. It's become the norm to compliment others on their good work, and passing that up the chain and through official channels when the opportunity presents itself.

Positive feedback can be a good way to reinforce behaviors in your team mates that you want to see more of. For example, you wish that people on the team tested their changes thoroughly before opening a PR.

If you mention that, you will be seen as whiny and a complainer. But if you praise someone who does it, well now you're being positive. Both things have the same effect, in that they communicate that you want people to do more of a certain behavior ... but they are perceived differently by others in the group.

It has the same effect the other way. If you generally provide positive feedback for good work and someone does mediocre work. Your lack of feedback is noticed, without you actually sticking your neck out and saying anything negative.

Positive feedback is great in reinforcing good behavior, for sure. I think the difference is when positive feedback about a coworker is directed towards management which, since there's an adversarial nature underlying most workplaces, you are acting as someone else's public relations spokesperson for free. I'm not saying that people should never point out the excellence of their coworkers to management; what I'm saying is that the mechanics of the workplace make this behavior rare and simply not worth the effort in most cases. The safest thought pattern for one's sanity is to give praise, but never expect that praise to be reciprocated.

Why does a receiver on the football team let the other receiver catch a pass, when he could look better by blocking it?

Yep, why do I want a 7% raise when I'm expected to work 15% more hours.

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