Is it a problem (for your boss) when you study at work?

Question

Almost every day at work for about an hour, I make it a point to stop working on the current project and study something to become a better developer. Read some blogs, or a chapter from a book.
My previous boss didn't have a problem with it (because he was doing the same) but my current boss doesn't like it. I feel it makes me more productive in the long run so I haven't stopped; I got better at hiding it and when I'm "caught", I lie that I'm finding a solution to a roadblock I hit.
I started feeling guilty about this over time and decided to find a new job.

Now, in your experience, do I have a decent chance of finding working environment where studying is encouraged or are most bosses like my current one?
Is there a good way to address this during a job interview?

Answer 1

You have to remember that you are on their dime, and that ultitmatly it is up to them.
If you really feel that it helps you try to explain this and get the permission to do it.

Answer 2

Does the company offer training or have a stated policy for skill advancement? If not, I wouldn't work there (if I could help it) but I definitely wouldn't hide it. They are paying you to do a job and if that understanding includes self directed learning great - if it doesn't you're taking time from them.

I spend my lunch hour and a few hours a week at home keeping up with what's going on because I'm the one benefiting from the knowledge the most in the long run.

Answer 3

Simply ask if the working environment allows for personal development.

Any employer who does not want you to increase your skills is missing out on a huge potential to have better employees and a better business, and I would not want to work for them while they had that attitude.

However, 1 hour a day is perhaps too much for some employers. You may have to come to an acceptable compromise with your boss, such as 1 hour study time twice a week only.

Answer 4

I have run into issues like this in the past and found that moving on was the best answer for me (I can't stop myself from trying to improve and learn new things). In my current environment, learning and improvement is encouraged, they only ask that you be willing to share this information with others. You may want to consider something that has worked very well for my group, developer workshops. We have bi-weekly workshops where one of our senior developers will run an hour long lesson on some specific topic. They don't always relate to a project specific information, but tend to be about things that are beneficial across multiple projects such as TDD, Design Patterns, new frameworks (i.e. asp.net mvc, ruby on rails, etc) or specific language features/tools that will make us all more productive.

Maybe you could get something like this started and show the benefit that the company (and your co-workers) would gain from your professional development time.

Answer 5

I build that time in for my staff. We have a standing 4 hours a week that we are allowed to spend on "continuing education" projects. Google does this for their developers as well. Try talking with you manager and help them to see the benefits.

Answer 6

I would say if you want to learn something which has direct impact on your current productivity(to increase ofcourse), you have better chance of defending/negotiating or setting your terms for the time spent learning.

Otherwise, i would suggest you to FIND the time in addition to your normal working hours!

Answer 7

If you rocked up at a job interview with me and said "do you mind me reading blogs for an hour a day" I'd say "Yes, I'm employing you to code, read them in your lunch hour like everyone else does".

In reality though it's never that cut and dried. Many companies have a training program of some sort and you'd probably be able to get away with claiming your research was part of that. Most people wouldn't object to you keeping your skills up to date and I've often use slack time or friday afternoons to brush up on a few things, but just downing tools for an hour a day is not on. IMHO, obviously.

Answer 8

We have training programs in our company, and some of these are based on individual requests (if approved by the training board).

However, outside of this, you are not supposed to be doing any personal studying during work time.

Answer 9

In my 10 years of experience you have a decent chance of finding a work environment where studying is encouraged or at least tolerated. It sounds like your current boss is a bit of a micro-manager. As long as I'm getting my work done in a timely fashion my bosses haven't had an issue with things that could be seen as "private-use" on the computer (email, ebay, etc.).

That said, taking a consecutive hour every day might be seen as too much, or too much at one time.

Answer 10

I have a staff of 6 programmers, and have built in "20% time" modeled on Google's policy to ensure that people are developing themselves professionally. (Obivously, there's some accountability here in the form of status reports and the requirement that whatever is built during that time belongs to our workplace or must be open-sourced.)

We do web development, and it's such a fast-moving field that I can't reasonably schedule training to keep everyone abreast of everything. This allows folks to pursue their own interests, still contribute to the workplace, and have some say in their own destiny.

Answer 11

My experience is that the bosses I've worked for are okay with me spending a reasonable amount of time studying while I'm at work - usually limited to a few hours a week. I'll usually use the time to learn about upcoming technologies are trends in the industry, so it benefits my employer as well as my own personal growth.

Maybe you could talk to them and explain that the time is helping you become a better developer, which really benefits them in the long run as well. Most bosses probably see this as time you're not working that you should, but if you can frame it in terms of making the time you are working more productive, maybe you can get them to see the light. Good luck!

Answer 12

This is a difficult question to answer as the applicability of study time depends a great deal on the type of job you are employed to do. Are you a researcher, or system architect/designer? Or are you paid to simply implement code? Are you salaried or hourly? The greater the degree of autonomy you have in your job and the less tied you are to punching a time clock, (generally) the greater the tolerance and acceptance of work-related extracurriculars. If these types of activities are important to you, you can find jobs where it is tolerated or even encouraged as part of the job.

Answer 13

To advance your career, you need to spend at least that much time in developing yourself. For almost everyone, work itself is too narrow. Hiding it is not good, that kills your trust relationship with your boss.

Of course you need to be sensitive to deadlines and moments of high work pressure.

Answer 14

Wow! I've been contracting in London for 13 years and never, ever seen an environment where it's acceptable to study in work time on a regular basis. That doesn't mean it doesn't go on, it's just not done publicly. Spare a thought for the poor UK contractors who have to do all their study on the train.

Answer 15

Where I work we have both time off to blog on the companys blog (that include reading others blogs to be up-to-date) and to study. The blogging part we are allowed to spend 3-4 hours a week.

We try to organize the studying, have bootcamps, have one person (one of the programmers) that is responsible to buy all books, plan courses and so on. The goal is to get everyone certified in their area of expertice.

We also have inspiration-days (2 times a year) where we hire some good speakers in subjects/fields we feel we want to explore more. The last one was a whole day on SCRUM.

And allmost every year we send a group of programmers to Microsofts MIX-event, and other to Adobes MAX-event in US and many other programming-related events locally in Sweden.

I feel like the company understand that the programmers ARE the most important asset they have and that they know they must spend money and time to keep the programmers updated and on the edge.

Salary is not the most important thing when consider a job, if you find out that your knowledge is outdated in 4 years you'll not have any salary at all. Education is important and if the company does not recognize that, its not a company I would work for.

Answer 16

I would question any boss who believes HOURS_OPERATING_ON_DESK == PRODUCTIVITY_MEASURE for many reasons. The first being that we are not robots, and studies prove this not to be the case. Second, your development makes further work more productive since you are more skilled. Thirdly, your motivation levels will be increased overall, as well as your stress levels as you can spend less time studying in spare time and hence have more time available to relax.

I like to see employees work as resources, and the employee as the producer of the resource. Milk your cow to death and you will have a dead cow, but that is not to say that we should not be milking them, but that there is more to getting milk than the milking alone. Feed them well, give them plenty of exercise and manage their production.

• Kel

Answer 17

I know myself when slow periods arise I usually work on studying, either for something new or trying to make features that we have in our application work better or more efficient. Considering that in the first week I was given online books for studying up on the PHP certification, Id' say that improving skills via learning at work when the workload allows it is encouraged.