Appreciation

These days we all are getting the appreciation mails :) . And this gets better and better. People are getting appreciation for doing their standard job. And being happy about it.
This may be motivating for whole lot of people but some how I find it funny. Appreciation for anything seems like taking away the value. I'd like my contribution to be acknowledged and thats all. Not really made out an example for anything.
The doing of a job gives me pleasure. A work well done, I don't need appreciation for it. I already know if I did a good or bad job.
Do I need appreciation for things I just did, w/o my heart in it? More pertinent question, why did I even do it?
Primarily appreciation/acknowledgment is motivating only when it comes from people I respect and I anyway know I did a good job according to my standards. Now, an appreciation w/o a definition of standards is truly limiting.