The worker/wrapper transformation is a technique for changing the type of a computation, usually with the aim of improving its performance. It has been used by compiler writers for many years, but the technique is little-known in the wider functional programming community, and has never been described precisely. In this article we explain, formalise, and explore the generality of the worker/wrapper transformation. We also provide a systematic recipe for its use as an equational reasoning technique for improving the performance of programs, and illustrate the power of this recipe using a range of examples. 1