It is said that “work ennobles man” and that “work is a golden bracelet”. Taking these folk sayings literally, I could conclude that work is a precious activity for man, bringing him spiritual advantages in addition to material ones. But do we appreciate it at its true value? Are we aware of the added value that our work brings to society and to ourselves?

But how can we show our appreciation for work? I think there are very few people who wake up in the morning eager to start their workday. There are just as few who would rather go to work than spend the day at the beach or in some other relaxing place. These days, there are a lucky (or unlucky?) few who have the luxury of not needing a job, having other sufficient sources of income. The rest of us have to earn our living through work, and I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing. We just have to find the motivation to spend most of our time at work.

When we talk about motivation, we can refer to the need to integrate into a social group, the desire to perform in a certain field, to develop a career, or the need for recognition of merits and skills. But we must be honest with ourselves and recognize that most of the time the main motivation is material, the desire to convert the efforts made into a more consistent income.

Income can take many forms. As an employee, income consists of salary, bonuses, and benefits provided by your employer. As a freelancer or entrepreneur, income earned is the fee for services provided to a client, less related costs and taxes.

How do we know if our work is valued fairly? Or, better yet, what factors do we consider when valuing our work, because we shouldn't expect others to appreciate how much our time and work is worth.

I will take the work of an appraiser as an example and will filter the possible forms of income generated by this profession through the filter of my own reason.

For a certified appraiser who chooses to work as an employee of an appraisal company, income can consist of salary and benefits or facilities such as: meal or vacation vouchers, medical subscriptions, private health insurance, gym memberships and others. To find out if my work is valued correctly, as an employee, the first step I would take would be to calculate all the costs I have to bear for myself and my family members, from the basic ones (for food, housing, clothes) to the expenses for a comfortable life (for a car, culture, travel, savings, etc.). If the salary and benefits reasonably cover the costs, I could say that I am satisfied and that my work is valued correctly. Of course, this reasoning can be subjective and this is where the employer's role comes in, to appreciate the employee's work and recognize its added value.

Being an employee has its advantages, but there are also disadvantages. An advantage, in my opinion, would be that the responsibility stops at producing quality evaluation reports for the company's clients, during regular business hours, without having to worry about how those clients end up using the company's services, what fees are charged, or what the costs are. A disadvantage could arise when the company, in order to cover fixed costs with salaries and benefits, requires me to produce a minimum number of evaluation reports per month, the so-called "targets", or sets other performance indicators that I should reach in order to continue to benefit from my monthly salary. If the quantitative targets set by the company are disproportionate and not anchored in reality, consequences arise: the quality of my work decreases, job satisfaction suffers, and I may very well reconsider the fairness of valuing my work.

Being a freelancer may seem simpler and more convenient than being an employee. I am not obliged to go to the office according to a fixed schedule, I can work at the pace I set myself and I do not depend on other people in my work. But things are more complicated than they seem. In order to earn income, I have to be an evaluator, accountant, driver and salesperson at the same time. I have to promote myself very well to face the competition. Considerable additional costs arise, such as office rent (if I do not work from home), utilities, telephone, IT, office equipment, travel, taxes, membership fees, professional training and others. Also, the responsibility and risk assumed are greater – working alone, I do not have a fellow evaluator to check the evaluation report I have prepared. The natural question arises: how much do I have to work to live decently and to cover the fixed costs and risks involved in the activity I have chosen? And the question has a two-dimensional answer: number of reports completed and fee charged. How many evaluation reports can I do myself in a month and what fee should I charge to ensure sufficient income to cover my costs and have a decent living?

As an entrepreneur, owner of a business in the field of valuation, I could collect income from salaries or dividends. I could even be alone in the company, but this form of activity leads more to being a freelancer, because I would still work alone. As an entrepreneur, I can choose to work with fellow evaluators either in the form of a partnership or in the form of employment relationships, that is, I can have collaborators or employees. For an entrepreneur, the costs are somewhat more diversified and higher than those of a freelancer. For example, the professional liability insurance policy is much more expensive, at the minimum level being over 10 times higher than for an individual. The contribution to ANEVAR is over twice as expensive. A company must be concerned with the professional training of employees, not just the minimum of 20 hours, but much more in-depth. Running a company involves considerable fixed costs – rent, telephony, internet, transportation, PR, marketing, resource management software, research, subscriptions to various databases, etc. However, in my opinion, the biggest challenge for an entrepreneur is to identify, recruit and retain well-trained, professional and responsible employees. This is where the biggest expenses of money and time come in, translated into professional training programs, mentoring, team integration and many other steps necessary to ensure a conducive working environment.

Whether we are organized as a PFA or a commercial company, fixed costs should have about the same weight in the fee charged, the volume of work being higher in the case of a company. As a result, the unit fee should not vary much, as it unfortunately happens. Of course, fees for evaluation services can vary slightly depending on the purchasing power specific to a certain area of ​​the country or other objective factors. But when a client receives two offers for the same type of evaluation, with the same terms of reference, one being two or three times lower than the other, he is justified in asking himself whether he received offers for the same type of service.

Of course, the valuation market is characterized by intense competition. Competition is healthy and desirable, but it should be fair. Differentiation should be done more through the quality of services, professionalism and ethical conduct, and less through price and speed.

Whether we are full-time appraisers and make a living from this profession, or part-time appraisers and appraise properties only to supplement our income from our main activity, it would be good to think of this activity as a stand-alone activity, not to mix it with or assimilate it with other professions. Thus, we could hope that at some point in the future the differences between the fees practiced in the appraisal market will be smaller.

I would like to understand correctly what I have conveyed through these lines. I do not want "minimum rates" or standard fees. I only want the services we offer to be appreciated at their true value, to be valued correctly, both by us, the evaluators, and by the users of our services. I would like each of us, when issuing a financial offer, to balance both the fixed and variable costs, as well as the risks specific to this activity. Costs increase from year to year, but the fees are not even indexed to the inflation rate. The responsibility and obligations of the evaluator are increasing more and more in the perception of the client or user of the evaluation services, but the fees are maintained at the same level.

It depends primarily on us whether we work usefully or not. We are the first ones who should value our work correctly and demand honorable fees. We should also be able to explain to clients that the result of our work brings added value, it is not just a check mark on a list of obligations.

I am convinced that our work will be appreciated at its true value. Whether it will be sooner or later depends largely on ourselves, our mentality and the awareness that we are members of the same guild.