The Real Reason You’re Overlooked at Work

You’ve put an incredibly low ceiling on your earnings.

Because you’ve been paying a tax you didn’t even know existed.

It doesn’t officially show up on your pay stub. It doesn’t get formally tracked on your annual performance review. But it’s there, taking a chunk out of your hard work every single day.

It’s called the imposter tax.

And if you’ve been overlooked for promotions, or you’re quietly doing the heavy lifting while others get the credit, then you’re already paying it.

In bunches.

Worst of all, it’s self-imposed.

The Problem

The imposter tax punishes high performers who confuse hard work with visibility. You think if you deliver results, the right people will notice.

You think merit speaks for itself. Once in a while, it does.

But most of the time, it doesn’t

Silence in the business world equals invisibility. And invisibility comes with a massive cost my friend.

You don’t get the stretch assignment you’ve secretly wanted for months. You don’t get invited into the big meetings. You don’t get tapped on the shoulder when leadership is looking for the next manager.

That’s the price of staying quiet. And it adds up fast.

Becoming Tax Exempt

I wish someone had shared this with me years ago. So I’m paying it forward.

This week, I want you to stop paying the imposter tax.

The move is simple: close one visibility gap.

A visibility gap is the space between what you’ve achieved and what others actually know about it. You close that gap by explicitly offering help or making your work visible to the people who matter.

Not by bragging. Not by boasting. Not by turning yourself into someone you’re not.

But by rethinking how you show up in different settings. Here are three ways to do it immediately:

Team Meetings

Most of us let our work get absorbed into “team updates” that erase our names.

The fix is subtle (and easy as heck). When you get a chance to speak on your work, frame it like this:

“I led the redesign of our intake process. Here’s the improvement we’ve already seen, and here’s what’s next.”

That one sentence formally attaches your name to the work. It signals ownership without feeling like an awkward humble brag.

1:1s With Your Boss

Stop treating your 1:1s with your boss like therapy sessions. You vent. You raise risks. Or concerns.

But you don’t visibly problem solve or take your credit.

Try this instead:

“Where do you need me to take the lead so you don’t have to?” to offer them some relief.

Or something like “One win I’m proud of this week was negotiating with the vendor to cut turnaround time by 30 percent. I’d like to talk about how we build on that momentum.”

You’ve just shifted from venting and circling around problems to offering real value.

Your manager now associates your name with a tangible result.

Practice Your Elevator Pitch

Stop freezing when asked what you do.

Draft one high-value sentence that frames your role in terms of impact.

Example: “I’m the manager of the data team. I help the branch turn messy data into decisions leaders can act on.”

Then rehearse until it feels natural. Advocacy feels less terrifying when it’s memorized & practiced.

And the next time you walk into (or virtually join) a meeting, you'll be way more confident speaking about what you do.

Closing

See? It's not so bad.

The ugly truth is that closed mouths don’t get fed.

Mhmmm. That's right. Often, the loudest voices get heard. And the ones willing to step forward get promoted.

But here’s the good news: you don’t need to become someone you’re not.

You don’t need to fake it. You don’t need to play politics.

You just need to stop subsidizing everyone else’s career with your silence.

Stop paying the imposter tax.

Start cashing in on your own value.

Happy Saturday,

Alain H.

You can’t afford to stay invisible. Download my free toolkit and start closing your visibility gaps today.