Former Amazon vice president Ethan Evans urged employees to actively advocate for themselves in the workplace rather than relying on hard work alone to advance their careers, saying that pushy people get more. Evans made the remarks on an episode of the Peterman Pod released Tuesday.

"There is some truth to the old saying, 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease,'" he said in a podcast interview. "This is another harsh truth people don't like."

"You can end up behind just because you're such a nice guy," he said.

He said some employees are more vocal about what they want in their careers than others, and that two employees with roughly the same performance could have different outcomes in a reorganization if one does not vocalize their needs or intentions.

Rather than hoping to be noticed, he said, individuals should take deliberate action to make their work visible to decision-makers. Career self-advocacy begins with making one's career desires known, he said, and reasonably sharing one's work helps it get noticed.

One practical step he recommended was sending a weekly status report to a boss and key stakeholders. He described the practice as a way to ensure awareness of one's work without bragging.

In a follow-up statement, he said people should not rely on the "work hard and hope to be noticed" career strategy. At the same time, he said people should not be jerks in the process of making themselves heard.

Evans retired from Amazon in 2020. Since leaving the company, he has shared career tips with Business Insider on upgrading a résumé and has shared lessons he learned from working under CEO Jeff Bezos.