Is Working Hard Smarter?

Interesting thinking about work ethics, isn't it? Have you ever had a job where people thought you were Wonder Worker just because you did what you said you were going to do when you said you'd do it? I've had several of my friends answer that question affirmatively. Is that such a rare occurrence these days? Sad. Of course, it does make it easy to stand out: just do your job. Now, if those people were in a pay for performance situation, the world would be just and they would be getting paid more than the slackers in the cubes down the hall. In the real world though, mostly, those that do work well, get more work piled on them to compensate for those who do not do their work well. Is that screwed up, or what?