Comment by JumpCrisscross

> If someone isn't producing the goods, they need need to make themselves liked somehow

In competitive work environments, I've seen this heuristic overcorrect more often than be right, i.e. the nice person is assumed to be incompetent. Having worked on a trading floor, where niceness was not valued, and on teams with nice people with whom one could vent, reconsider interpersonal disputes or bounce ideas off (in terms of how others on the team might see a proposal), I strongly preferred the latter.