It’s the whine heard round the world after a tough day at work. People want to be recognised, whether it’s a little thank-you e-mail from a client, or a plaque given for great service at the company awards dinner. A few months ago, someone wrote to me to inquire if it is ever appropriate to ask for that recognition. The reason this person asked? “A number of the people I’ve worked with on the project in another organisation are leaving... Is it appropriate to ask them for some sort of recognition (not even money), e.g. a plaque, to memorialise my contribution before they leave and I’m left to establish new relationships?”

While that may sound tacky, it’s not entirely inappropriate. And perhaps, it’s a good lesson for managers and companies out there: A little recognition can mean a lot to most workers.

Several years ago, Cendant Car Rental Group, the parent company of Avis Rent A Car Systems Inc., created a formal reward programme in which managers, supervisors and co-workers could log on to the company intranet and select a level of recognition that they wanted to give to a particular colleague. The request would be sent to that person’s supervisor, who would then check it out and give his approval. Sometimes the recipient could get a gift card, a plaque or even other gifts through the programme.

During the past four years, the programme has grown 400 percent in terms of usage, said Mark Servodidio, executive vice-president of human resources with Cendant. “We understand what’s important to employees and what drives their engagement,” he said. “One is being recognised by co-workers and by a boss.”

Sometimes, a good word or note of thanks will send someone over the moon for days. Kristine Dunn, for instance, knows that when she is happy with an employee’s work, a mention of that to a manager can literally change that person’s life. Dunn is the director of Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington, a group that runs educational programmes for high-achieving young people. At the end of the summer, most of those employees must move on, as the students go back to school. However, some would like to stay on and work for Dunn’s group as it prepares for the following summer.

Dunn said she tries to speak with the hiring directors who take on summer employees if she was pleased with their work. “I suppose I started doing it because it was something I myself really appreciate,” she said. “The work my staff does for me is not often the glorious work. You know the times that you feel like ‘no one appreciates what I'm doing or how hard this is’.”

Other employees are not so lucky as to have a manager with the time or interest in taking the effort to recognise them. A federal worker wrote to me that when he first started 15 years ago, a relative in a similar position told him that if he wanted to be recognised for something, “I would need to write up a summary of the accomplishment(s) for my supervisor”.

“This seemed a little cynical to me,” he said. However, after a couple of projects for which he received no recognition, he tried it. “They simply didn’t want to do the paperwork. Now, whenever I lead a successful project, I fill out the forms for an award and write a glowing summary of my accomplishments. And my supervisor is grateful. She simply signs it and sends it on its way. She gets credit for successfully managing my efforts. I get rewarded. Everybody’s happy.”

But I wonder: Should we expect a pat on the back for a job well done when, really, that’s our job? I mean, we get paid for this stuff. We’re not exactly doing someone a favour by doing our job well, right? That may be true. But Chester Elton, co-author of the book A Carrot a Day, notes that the bottomline of companies that provide some sort of recognition is much healthier than of those that don’t.

As for asking for that recognition oneself, the way the federal worker did? That could be the right thing to do. “What it does is, it starts a dialogue,” Servodidio said. “Normally, even in a company like ours, there’s still an opportunity where you don’t always get it right.”

? THE WASHINGTON POST