Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to measure the success of my career against that of some former colleagues.

Boy, was I shocked.

The key, you see, is that these former colleagues had moved into a provincial Crown Agency - a government organization distanced from direct political control and managed according to market forces.

It’s fairly easy to measure the success of your career relative to other government communications officers. Your roles and responsibilities are standardized. Titles are mirrored across organizations. We all share a common pay scale.

For the less intuitive, the government’s formulaic job posters provide a codex to deciphering all this information.

As a result, a simple business card can provide all the intelligence you need to judge your competitors, your colleagues, and the also-rans.

My former colleagues, however, had decided (separately) some years ago to test the waters by working in the private sector.

They eventually moved to the same Crown Agency.

On Tuesday, the provincial government released the names, titles and salaries of every employee of a government department, organization and Crown Agency making more than $100k a year. It’s required by sunshine legislation designed to make the government more transparent.

There, on the list, was one colleague, a Director of Communications, making over $160k. The other? A VP of regulatory affairs making over $300k.

The first makes more than almost any communicator working for the federal government.

The second makes more than almost every Deputy Minister.

I guess I should re-evaluate my reliance on a steady pension and a good health plan.