The performative trap of public recognition 

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

A simple “good job!” in a public Slack channel shouldn’t be your recognition strategy. 

When one of my best engineers, who led the development of our critical system, told me during our 1:1 that she didn’t feel like anyone noticed what she did, I was stunned. But I knew that if she felt invisible as the lead engineer and a mentor for three junior developers on the team, something was fundamentally broken.

I used to think I was pretty good at recognition. The common mechanisms of my recognition included occasional “Nice work!” messages in Slack, shout-outs during standups, and thank-you emails after big releases.

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