Why does nobody notice the invisible work I do?

You sort a mountain of footage into order. No one sees the sorting. They see the finished film and thank the editor, the director, the faces on screen. You get silence, and it eats at you. Look closely at what you actually want. You say you want the work done well. But you also want someone to witness you doing it. You've let the second want hide inside the first, and then blamed the work for not satisfying both. This isn't a flaw in the people who don't notice. It's a habit you keep choosing — tying your effort to their attention instead of to the thing itself. A habit can be unmade.