I spent NO time last week making shidduchim – I was sick with stomach flu. But I digress… I, too, am curious. If you are spending 8 hours a day making shidduchim for which you are a) not getting compensated properly and b)not being shown appreciation or that you are valued, then why are you doing it? And how are you making a parnassah with all your time devoted to non-compensated shidduchim when they didn’t go through?
When you talk about appreciation you ONLY seem to mean financial appreciation. I have been shown great verbal and emotional hakoras hatov for my efforts,even when it did not go through, and that is enough for me. If you want to be a professional shadchan whose life is spent yomam valailah making shidduchim, then you need to get real and understand that no matter how hard you work, if you don’t get the job done, they will not pay you. If my plumber works all day in my house and the toilet is still not working, he does not get paid. You may feel that is unfair, but if someone cannot get the job done, UNLESS IT IS UNDERSTOOD BEFOREHAND that he gets paid for the effort, he does not get paid for merely trying, even if he tries very hard. To put it in another perspective, a student who is not as quick to learn as another one, may try really hard to study for a test, really put all his kochos into it, and still end up with a grade of 70 on a test. At the end of the day, while the teacher may appreciate the child’s efforts, that child still got a 70, and his report card will reflect that (though the teacher absolutely may write in the comments,”I can see how hard Reuven has been trying, and hopefully he will do better next time.”) Effort alone, no matter how much it is appreciated, still does not constitute an end result that is desirable, and may not be compensatory.