Well I for one would be happy to be getting $75,000 (GBP46,450) and even happier if I thought it would go up by a minimum of 2% just for keeping out of trouble.

At last year's review, a major ePayments system for one of our clients had just gone live successfully, a development in which I played a major part. My reward for my work on what had been a difficult project was a pay rise of precisely 0%. Oh, yes, and my final salary pension was replaced by a defined contribution pension. I scored 100% in my ITIL certification exam the same year.

That was just one of 6 barren years since 2003.

My advice? If you want to work hard and do the best job you can, do so for your own satisfaction. Don't

do so for the vague prospect of financial reward at the end of the year because you are very likely to be disappointed.

Where I work, the review process is highly proceduralised, and any discretion which your immediate manager (who actually knows what you achieved) might have had, has been thoroughly excised.

I try not to think about the money, because it make me feel bitter. However, I have an endless curiosity to find out new things, and use that to produce something useful.