Time for the annual performance review!

Question

Friday (February 20) marks The Workplace's first anniversary. Congratulations to all on a fantastic first year after IPO graduation!

As with many workplaces, another year behind us means it's time for our performance review. First some stats, then some commentary, and then a request for input.

The Workplace's first year, by the numbers:

• Questions: 4,435
• Answers: 11,451
• Edits (to body): 9,526
• Comments: 47,750, of which 11,520 were deleted
• Upvotes: 106,677
• Downvotes: 16,968
• Total reputation gained: 1,310,840
• Moderators promoted to management: 1

That's right -- over the past year we've asked more than 4000 questions, provided more than 11,000 answers, and handed out a whopping 1.3 million reputation points. We have a strong, active community -- kudos!

We've also posted quite a few comments -- sometimes to seek clarification, which is what comments are for, and sometimes because we sure are a chatty bunch sometimes. Almost a quarter of those comments were deleted -- some because they had served their purpose and were obsolete, but mostly for other reasons. Over the past year we've tried to emphasize chat for discussions; while we're having some success there, this will be an area for further growth in the coming year.

We've had nearly 10k edits (not counting tag-only edits), which is healthy. We didn't ask how many of those were by the posts' authors versus by others. Please keep up the good work of helping to clarify posts -- incorporating information in comments, fixing up grammar and formatting, responding to questions, and so on. We particularly want to commend people who spend time helpfully editing other people's posts; you are helping to make our community stronger. Thank you.

And now the request for input: what have you found most gratifying, pleasantly surprising, or helpful on The Workplace in this past year? Please post an answer and tell us about it. Maybe you got a really outstanding answer to your question that helped you make an important decision? Maybe you were able to help somebody else solve a sticky problem? Maybe you came across a question you didn't even know you had and the answers there helped you avert a problem? Maybe you learned something new about a different country, industry, or type of job? Please share The Workplace's successes.

Thanks for a great year, and let's make the next one even better.

Thanks also to Ana ♦ and Jmac ♦ for data-wrangling.

Monica Cellio ♦
enderland ♦
jmort253 ♦

Answer 1

what have you found most gratifying, pleasantly surprising, or helpful on The Workplace in this past year?

I think what I enjoy the most is when people post something along the lines of "this worked great!" or "totally got the job!" or "got the raise!" either on posts or in chat.

Since joining The Workplace I have seen this many times and I love it. EVERY TIME.

This site is making an actual difference in real people's lives. Sometimes I think I forget that all this interwebs and fake points and voting and editing and other stuff can actually impact this mystical "real life" I read about once.

Answer 2

And now the request for input: what have you found most gratifying, pleasantly surprising, or helpful on The Workplace in this past year?

I'm always gratified (and sometimes pleasantly surprised) when an answer I provided actually gives the questioner what she/he needs.

I'm only here to help. When I get feedback that I have helped, that makes me happy.

I'm pleased that we have such a great community here providing opportunities to learn from, and to help, others.

Answer 3

And now the request for input: what have you found most gratifying, pleasantly surprising, or helpful on The Workplace in this past year? (...) Maybe you came across a question you didn't even know you had and the answers there helped you avert a problem?

I discovered the workplace (and really all the stackexchange communities) last year and in most communities, I've mostly been reading and upvoting and occasionally commenting. I like the workplace because I've found answers to lots of questions I didn't even know I had. Being from Europe, I've learned quite a bit about the differences between working in Europe vs in the U.S.

Also, I want to thank all the answer-authors here. You guys are so great that I haven't had a chance to write an answer, yet, because everytime I think "oh, I know an answer to this" when I read the existing answers you have already written a great answer that I can agree with and upvote.

I'm definitely going to continue to follow the workplace this year.

Answer 4

Around the time of our graduation I got laid off and so was in need of a new gig. For the first time I was facing a Skype interview early in the process and found this post very helpful. Successful Skype and local interviews led to the need to go to the main office to interview, and at that point I had a question.

I liked this company and didn't want to blow it over something stupid, but I was not at all clued in about the expense conventions for local cabs. I figured that most people would just drive but I have some vision problems that were enough to lead to some uncomfortable moments at my previous employer, and I sure didn't want that to be a problem at this stage. (We could talk about minor accommodations later, after I was hired.) I considered just swallowing the expense, but I asked about whether it was generally kosher to take a cab to my own airport and, reassured by the answers there, did so and submitted that expense (and nobody blinked).

By the way, not only did I get the job, but I was sitting in the airport waiting to come home when The Workplace's first moderator election finished, watching the results on my tablet. I'll call that a good day. :-)