The squeaky wheel gets the grease is an American aphorism or metaphor attesting that matters which draw attention to themselves are more likely to be addressed than those which do not.
[1] The term makes no necessary correlation between the volume of a complaint and its stridency with its merit.
The origin of the squeaky wheel metaphor is unknown, but its current form is attributed to American humorist Josh Billings (the pen name of Henry Wheeler Shaw), who is said to have popularized it in his putative poem "The Kicker" (c. 1870)However, this poem has been attributed to various authors, anonymous or otherwise, and its provenance has never been verified.
[4] For unknown reasons, in 1937 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations attributed the poem to Shaw.
[5][6] Other variations exist, and suggest that being heard gets attention, and prolongs the life of the hub, whereas a silent hub may be overlooked and neglected.