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We have a formal mentorship program and employees get 4 hours a month for professional development. We still feel we fail them.

ghaff 7y ago
>4 hours a month for professional development So half a day a month? That's pretty much nothing. Maybe time to work through a couple chapters of a book on some new topic.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  Yeah, it's supposed to be on top of their existing 1-1s, but we still feel we fail them.
eyko 7y ago
We do 4 hours a week, and I still feel it's too little.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  We've just given up on it, I just give people tickets with stuff they want to learn about. "Oh, you want to learn Selenium, here's a ticket that has Selenium"
jsjw7sbw 7y ago
Make that 4 hours a week and maybe you'll feel better.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  Unfortunately, HR is in charge of 'professional development'. Noone wants to fight HR and would rather keep their cushy job, get paid and let this thing crater.
  - sethammons 7y ago
    Unfortunately, that is when, as a team, you have to not classify things certain ways. Still meet your commitments, but bake in learning time. It just becomes part of what you do during the sprint. Likewise, you should not have a "testing time", "quality", or "security" budget - you just bake those into how the team operates.
    - randomidiot666 7y ago
      ^ This is the way. Learn how to sell it or hide it from those HR parasites.
      - all2 7y ago
        Calling an entire field of personnel "parasites" is an ad hominem attack. Even if you were to justify your statement, it would be an ad hominem attack.
        randomidiot666 7y ago
        No shit. Cheers for pointing that out for us.
rytill 7y ago
Using the word "still" there is uncalibrated. 4 hours per month is barely anything. Imagine yourself trying to learn a real skill in that allocation of time. If anything, you may even be reducing your tech employees' "professional development" with that metric, because I bet the average tech employee already spends greater than 4 hours per month on active learning with or without management actively allowing them.

ghaff 7y ago

>4 hours a month for professional development So half a day a month? That's pretty much nothing. Maybe time to work through a couple chapters of a book on some new topic.

WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
Yeah, it's supposed to be on top of their existing 1-1s, but we still feel we fail them.

eyko 7y ago

We do 4 hours a week, and I still feel it's too little.

WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
We've just given up on it, I just give people tickets with stuff they want to learn about. "Oh, you want to learn Selenium, here's a ticket that has Selenium"

jsjw7sbw 7y ago

Make that 4 hours a week and maybe you'll feel better.

WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
Unfortunately, HR is in charge of 'professional development'. Noone wants to fight HR and would rather keep their cushy job, get paid and let this thing crater.
- sethammons 7y ago
  Unfortunately, that is when, as a team, you have to not classify things certain ways. Still meet your commitments, but bake in learning time. It just becomes part of what you do during the sprint. Likewise, you should not have a "testing time", "quality", or "security" budget - you just bake those into how the team operates.
  - randomidiot666 7y ago
    ^ This is the way. Learn how to sell it or hide it from those HR parasites.
    - all2 7y ago
      Calling an entire field of personnel "parasites" is an ad hominem attack. Even if you were to justify your statement, it would be an ad hominem attack.
      - randomidiot666 7y ago
        No shit. Cheers for pointing that out for us.

rytill 7y ago

Using the word "still" there is uncalibrated. 4 hours per month is barely anything. Imagine yourself trying to learn a real skill in that allocation of time. If anything, you may even be reducing your tech employees' "professional development" with that metric, because I bet the average tech employee already spends greater than 4 hours per month on active learning with or without management actively allowing them.