I think "well-timed" is the key word here. I got one yesterday (compliment, that is). It was a bit surprising, but my tech lead / manager made note of how much I was working on recently and that I was doing a good job staying up on it all. A little while later, someone else was commenting about "all the extra work" that was going to be dumped on me, and the same manager said how hard I was working and that he, who missed a meeting he should have attended, needed to focus on his own work. It did make me a little uncomfortable, but only because I'm horrible about accepting praise for my work. It's my job, it's what I do. But it is nice to be noticed once in a while.