The regular thing, especially in large companies - something I call practicing the art of visibility. Every person in a team - that is everybody who is at least a little ambitious - tries to get as much visibility as possible. Sending emails about what he or she has achieved, tools he or she has discovered, the things he or she has helped to happen. The receivers, then, in large quantities send Thank Yous, Well Dones, and Amazings.
And, we are bothered by this.
Why??
If the person has really achieved something or wants to share something important he or she has discovered, why do we sometimes feel so alienated by these efforts?
As Max Weber described, there are different types of rationality - the main ones being the instrumental (or purposive) one and the value (belief) one. Instrumental rationality is the one reflected in pursuing ends in a calculated and rational (rational as what we would normally understand under the word rational) way; the value rationality, on the other hand, is the rationality reflected in actions we take out of reasons intrinsic to ourselves, reasons which do not have as ends quantifiable success.
Now, neither of those kinds of rationality is a "bad" rationality. Both are important in the life of a human being. However, the problem arises when one of the rationalities is being constantly overemhasized over the other. The increasing institutionalization and rationalization of our life has made the instrumental rationality far more important than the value rationality. But our human nature is still very much based on both nad that is where our alienation comes from.
Therefore, when there are too many efforts clearly perceived as based on instrumental rationality and lacking in the value rationality, we become annoyed.
And this is more and more so, the more time we spend at work and the more the workplace is rationalized (in the Weberian sense).
