Retired a few back but keep in touch with the higher ups as well. You're completely wrong with that statement. Many people get rewarded for hard work. But in order to get rewarded, do you have to be the one that is seriously helping the company. If you're talking about the bottom of the worker pile then you have to do something to stand out. In my case I started off building on the factory line. Saw what they ran for computer systems. Trained myself at my own expense to learn them and ingrain to myself Socially with the people that ran them. Hard work isn't just the physical part. It's also the mental part and most importantly the social part. So much of business is social and if they don't know who you are they'll never know the hard work you're doing or how beneficial you are to the company. If you are, that is.