Or maybe Jeff is highly productive but not good at marketing himself. Perhaps he doesn't want the spotlight and is happy to quietly provide value for his employer who rewards him in turn. Perhaps Jeff is black and everyone besides management (the only people who have a financial incentive not to be) is racist. Perhaps Jeff is doing an important but unpopular task; e.g., he's the asshole rejecting pull requests because the schema changes break normal form, or running A/B tests and finding that all the other employee's cool features don't increase revenue.
There are lots of legitimate reasons why Jeff might be effective and well paid, and why it might not be useful to publicize this fact widely. A popularity contest is NOT the right way to allocate pay - among other things, the participants in the popularity contest have no incentive whatsoever to properly evaluate Jeff's value.
There are lots of legitimate reasons why Jeff might be effective and well paid, and why it might not be useful to publicize this fact widely. A popularity contest is NOT the right way to allocate pay - among other things, the participants in the popularity contest have no incentive whatsoever to properly evaluate Jeff's value.