Your Best Employees and Being Penalized

Your best employees aren’t burning out. 🔥
They’re unplugging, and being penalized for it. 🔌

HBR recently published a study showing that employees who set healthy work-life boundaries (by not checking email on weekends, for example) are consistently rated less committed and less promotable, even when their performance is equal or better. 😎

Let that sink in.

Managers say they value work-life balance. ⚖️
But in practice? They still reward visibility over value. 👀

But guess what? This isn’t a “bad manager” problem.
This is the classic role clarity problem.

If managers are unsure how to assess performance without watching people work, then the issue isn't employee detachment.
It's manager detachment from clear success criteria.

This shows up a lot in post-sale Customer Success teams, roles that thrive on ownership but flounder without clarity. When expectations are fuzzy, managers start rewarding whoever looks busiest instead of who’s moving the needle on customer value realization. ☁️

Here’s the fix:

• ✅ Define what great looks like for each role, and keep it tight and focused;

• ✅ Tie job success metrics directly to customer outcomes;

• ✅ Build scoring and playbooks so employees know where to focus, and managers know how to evaluate.

The result?

• 🔹 Employees know exactly how to win, and then deliver better results

• 🔹 Managers can coach to performance instead of policing presence

• 🔹 Teams stay engaged because they see how their work drives real customer impact

So, if you’re worried someone “isn’t visible,” ask yourself instead, 🫣
“Have we made success visible enough for them to achieve it?” 🎯

When role clarity is weak, high performers often suffer the most. Because they're self-directed and don’t need constant oversight, they naturally unplug.

But without clear criteria for success, their results get overlooked in favor of teammates who are just more visible. So lack of role clarity doesn’t just confuse teams, it also drives your best people away.