It is expected of every responsive and effective government to give utmost priority to the welfare and valued conditions of service of the teachers who are the human capitals in schools. This is a wholesome bid to the anticipation of achieving laid down goals of education, without which the teachers may not conform to established rules of engagement, an ensuing blatant non-performance problem. Emanating from sheer observation of this scenario, and owing to scanty literature and dearth of empirical works in this area, this study therefore aimed at the examination of delayed promotion and performance of public secondary school teachers in Rivers State. In the attempt to investigate the relationship between the variables, three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses were posed to guide the study. Vroom’s expectancy theory was utilized to explain the nexus between the variables. Random and simple random samplings were adopted. The sample size of 393 was determined using the Taro Yamane statistics, from the population figure of 36,215. The study adopted cross sectional research design and generated data through surveys. The instrument used for data collection was the questionnaire which was analyzed using percentage and chi-square that was used to test the hypotheses. The study found that there is a significant relationship between delayed promotion on the one hand, and public secondary school teachers’ reluctance to work effectively, teachers frequently absenteeism and reduced promotion of learning on the other hand. Thus, it is concluded that delayed promotion of public secondary school teachers negatively affects teachers’ performance in Rivers State.