Every line below is said about you, in a room you are not in, by someone with the budget.

These are the five stages of management perception.

Or, more accurately, the five stages of halo decay.

Stage one: Nobody knows who you are.

Stage two: Everyone is relieved you arrived.

Stage three: You have become the safe pair of hands.

Stage four: People start wondering what you actually do.

Stage five: Somebody suggests reviewing your role.

The median US employee stays with an employer for 3.9 years.

Conveniently, that is almost exactly enough time to experience the entire cycle.

Your performance may not have declined at all.

The problems you fixed stopped being problems. The systems you built became part of the furniture. The judgement people once valued is now treated as something the business simply has.

That is halo decay.

Your actual contribution remains strong while the perceived contribution quietly falls through the floor.

By year three, yesterday’s miracles are today’s baseline.

By year four, somebody with a spreadsheet has decided the baseline probably maintains itself.

Keep a record of outcomes. Put numbers on them. Renew your mandate. Find the next important problem before the organisation concludes you have run out of them.

Doing excellent work is essential.

Assuming people remember why things work is adorable.