8 ms·

Companies should devote actual work time for studying, because relying on personal time is not just unethical, but inefficient. It's way cheaper to pay people t

Companies should devote actual work time for studying, because relying on personal time is not just unethical, but inefficient. It's way cheaper to pay people to study in-house than paying for outside training or bootcamps. Not everyone can (or want) to study this way, but devoted focused time give you far more benefits than one hour a day randomly whenever you can squeeze it. You can read most books (even technical ones) in under 8 hours, that's a single work day's worth. It's very likely your employees are wasting more than that over a two-week period on other things. That requires someone who's driven to learn, who would appreciate this time for what it is (it's not vacation), but would foster an environment where people were constantly trying to improve themselves and apply those things to the work (because that's the best way to learn). I study like crazy on my off time, mainly because I love learning, but it's definitely bordering on unpaid labor since I get all the best ideas after hours.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago
> Companies should devote actual work time for studying I like to think that IT workers learn on the job all the time, although usually only relevant to the current task at hand. But, I've always browsed sites like HN during work hours (instead of going outside to smoke for example), possibly too much, and consider it to be self-study. It's resulted in me knowing a little about a lot of things, I don't know if it translates to actual skills or career advancement but at least it makes me feel smart. ish.
zemvpferreira 3y ago
I'm with you and if you employ good people this naturally happens when they're not pushed to the limit for a period of time. If your team is at 70% capacity for a month, a number of them will take the downtime to learn.
BaseballPhysics 3y ago
Totally agreed. This was my policy with my staff. I straight up told them they can and should take a couple hours a week (tried to start small to make it achievable) on personal development, whether that's reading books, taking courses, etc. I'd even try and brainstorm with them on ways to spend the time. Funny thing is, with one or two exceptions, few did it because they always felt something else was more urgent during the day...
- sanderjd 3y ago
  I think this is sort of like unlimited vacation time policies: if you really want people to take advantage of it because you really believe in its value, you actually have to constantly nudge many, maybe most, people to do it. In the case of training / education, a good solution may be to provide more structure. Get a group of people to sign up for an actual structured class (or run one yourself), and set the expectation that they actually go to the meetings and/or do the work for it. Just "figure out some time to read some books on your own" will work for some people, but lots of people thrive on more structure than that.
  - BaseballPhysics 3y ago
    Another commenter also made a very good point: you've gotta let off the gas a bit. If everyone is going flat out, the surrounding pressures will cause people to prioritize being responsive to those pressures. But that requires a fundamental change in organizational productivity culture and means this kind of policy probably needs to be implemented -- and critically, measured -- at the corporate level so people collectively recognize that learning time is sacrosanct. No big deal!
    - sanderjd 3y ago
      Yep, and this is another way in which it reminds me of vacation policies. People have trouble imagining when they'll be able to take time off when the foot is always on the gas. So even if managers are truly bought in to the idea that time off is actually critical to a productive workforce (and I think most leadership I've worked for actually does buy this), it's still easy to create an environment where that doesn't happen.
      - ghaff 3y ago
        I think a lot of employees also convince themselves that if they unplug for a long vacation (which used to be pretty much inevitable), their career will be hosed or the company will fall apart. I took a number of month long vacations before there was much in the way of internet and I had people come up to me and basically be in astonishment that I could do that.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

> Companies should devote actual work time for studying I like to think that IT workers learn on the job all the time, although usually only relevant to the current task at hand. But, I've always browsed sites like HN during work hours (instead of going outside to smoke for example), possibly too much, and consider it to be self-study. It's resulted in me knowing a little about a lot of things, I don't know if it translates to actual skills or career advancement but at least it makes me feel smart. ish.

zemvpferreira 3y ago

I'm with you and if you employ good people this naturally happens when they're not pushed to the limit for a period of time. If your team is at 70% capacity for a month, a number of them will take the downtime to learn.

BaseballPhysics 3y ago

Totally agreed. This was my policy with my staff. I straight up told them they can and should take a couple hours a week (tried to start small to make it achievable) on personal development, whether that's reading books, taking courses, etc. I'd even try and brainstorm with them on ways to spend the time. Funny thing is, with one or two exceptions, few did it because they always felt something else was more urgent during the day...

sanderjd 3y ago
I think this is sort of like unlimited vacation time policies: if you really want people to take advantage of it because you really believe in its value, you actually have to constantly nudge many, maybe most, people to do it. In the case of training / education, a good solution may be to provide more structure. Get a group of people to sign up for an actual structured class (or run one yourself), and set the expectation that they actually go to the meetings and/or do the work for it. Just "figure out some time to read some books on your own" will work for some people, but lots of people thrive on more structure than that.
- BaseballPhysics 3y ago
  Another commenter also made a very good point: you've gotta let off the gas a bit. If everyone is going flat out, the surrounding pressures will cause people to prioritize being responsive to those pressures. But that requires a fundamental change in organizational productivity culture and means this kind of policy probably needs to be implemented -- and critically, measured -- at the corporate level so people collectively recognize that learning time is sacrosanct. No big deal!
  - sanderjd 3y ago
    Yep, and this is another way in which it reminds me of vacation policies. People have trouble imagining when they'll be able to take time off when the foot is always on the gas. So even if managers are truly bought in to the idea that time off is actually critical to a productive workforce (and I think most leadership I've worked for actually does buy this), it's still easy to create an environment where that doesn't happen.
    - ghaff 3y ago
      I think a lot of employees also convince themselves that if they unplug for a long vacation (which used to be pretty much inevitable), their career will be hosed or the company will fall apart. I took a number of month long vacations before there was much in the way of internet and I had people come up to me and basically be in astonishment that I could do that.

deleted 3y ago

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