>>20% time barely existed and Google I wouldn't be surprised. And its not just 20% projects, I'd be surprised if any smart person would like to do hacknights,

>>20% time barely existed and Google I wouldn't be surprised. And its not just 20% projects, I'd be surprised if any smart person would like to do hacknights, hackdays, weekend projects for the company. Such initiatives have always been the execs/VP's of way of saying 'Please someone do my homework'. If you have a leader who is clueless about the direction the person wants to go or projects the person wants to chase. The easiest way is to call for such initiatives, choose a mediocre project from it(You don't want great projects to make the programmers more famous than the managers). Once such a project is chosen, you will be kept busy forced to hit the deadline working 100 hr weeks. While the VP will be pushing his days sleeping on the job. What happens at the end of the year? Best case- You will get a passing mention at some event. Mediocre case- A congratulation email from a team. Worst case- Punished for making some mistakes. At the same time the VP/manager/Director will likely get promoted, receive a fat bonus or raise for 'developing a culture that fosters innovation'. If you are good enough to work on a great side project, do it at your home. And for yourself.