Compensation - Thank You for 10, 360 and 180,000 Reasons

This post is about recognition. The recognition of each of you reading this post, and anyone who has ever read a post on the Compensation Café.

Writing for the Comp Café is one of my favorite things. The discipline of finding ideas and turning them into 5 minutes of something that is, hopefully, interesting is both a challenge and a joy. Each article is an addition to a compendium of thoughts and ideas that have been shared by almost twenty regular writers and tons of guest writers over the years. As we dig into both the holiday and busy season, I want to say THANK YOU.

I have been writing posts for about 10 years. Most months I have written three or four posts, meaning I have written somewhere around 360 posts over the years. Luckily my friend and Comp Café Editor, Ann Bares, makes us keep our posts to around 500 words. Using these basic numbers, I have written somewhere around 180,000 words on pay and rewards! That is a heck of a lot of metaphors and stickman images.

I want to thank each and everyone one of you who has taken the time to like, share or even comment on the posts here at the Café. Knowing that someone is actually reading these things makes it far more worthwhile. It would be no fun to think we were just yelling into the wind.

Even more importantly I truly want to thank each of you who have sent me a note, asked me a question or just walked up to me at some industry event and said hi. Every time this happens, I excitedly tell my wife about it before the day is done. Every time it happens, I know that I have contributed, just a bit, to the industry that feeds my curiosity and my family.

I also want to thank Ann Bares for her amazing thought-leadership and keen editing eye. Her attention to detail and amazing writing are the most important aspect of this blog. Every other writer here is also amazing. I read their posts just like you do. I learn from them just as often as you do. I also know how much time they spend crafting their posts to ensure you receive great quality entertainment and information. (It ain’t always easy to make pay and rewards fun, pithy AND interesting.)

While this is a site focused on pay and rewards no one here makes a penny from their contributions. Not the writers, not the commenters, not the readers. So why do we all do it? I think there are a few reasons.

First, I think we all want to be better and perform at our potential. It’s a lofty goal that requires effort that is a reward in itself.

Second, we actually find this stuff interesting. We know that what we do is important to companies and the people that they employ. People’s livelihoods literally depend on us doing a good job.

Lastly, we like to be part of a community. A group of professionals who spend 3 to 5 minutes a day on a common topic, with a common cause, in an increasingly virtual and disconnected world. The Comp Café provides a small thread that ties all of us together brings all of us to the table for a quick sip of caffeinated information. 

Thanks again for stopping by and I hope you will come back and tell when you agree and disagree with our unique perspectives. Have a great Thanksgiving and we will see you after the holiday!

Dan Walter is a CECP, CEP, and Fellow of Global Equity (FGE). He works as Managing Consultant for FutureSense. He has three metaphors for every occasion and is a leading expert on incentive plan and equity compensation issues. He has written several industry resources including the only resource dedicated to Performance-Based Equity Compensation. He has co-authored ”Everything You Do In Compensation is Communication”, , “Equity Alternatives” and other books. Connect with Dan on LinkedIn. Or, follow him on Twitter at @DanFutureSense.