The one characteristic office workers relish about shackling themselves to the cube with fellow chain gangers, so to speak, is that they can take comfort in knowing that at least no one else is excelling. The tasks at hand are fairly rote, not requiring much in the way of creativity or effort.
But, once in awhile, there comes a person who proves himself (though probably herself, because there are far more women in offices as they have a higher threshold for pain and drudgery) to be a cut above the rest. Not only in aesthetic (it’s rare that an attractive person works in a cube, and if they do for very long, he or she soon becomes ugly) but also in what he or she is capable of.
When someone “shows off” a.k.a. is simply better than the average office shill, it makes the others uneasy, caustic even. Soon, the person who rises above the rest is shunned. Mediocrity hates nothing more than greatness.