This probably depends on the local culture. When I was at Microsoft, in the groups I worked in, we were explicitly evaluated on criteria such as "makes others better". My reviews actually stated that actively mentoring and going out of my way to be genuinely helpful to others contributed to my score, and I ranked on top almost every year. When I think of other colleagues who I know ranked highly, the people who come to mind are the ones who had both the ability and willingness to help a lot of other people do their jobs better.
Yep, and what I've heard (and only heard, never worked there myself) is that Microsoft has some of the most programmer friendly corporate culture around.
A lot (if not most) big companies are not like that. The reason Joel's writing on company culture is so popular is because such simple things are still quite rare in the world.
