Studying while at work?

What are your thoughts on studyingwhile at work? For the purposes of this question let's assume thatyou're sticking to material that is directly relevant to your org.

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Chitownjedi

All day every day!..

In seriousness. My last 3 contracts, they've had no issue with me using downtime to learn about stuff. Each place i've asked my direct manager, as well as got a feel from my contemporary's and in each case studying was the least of their worries.. some people were doing stuff that were a lot less "acceptable" with downtime.. like leaving for 3 hours at a time, or watching movies with their feet up.... and the work still got done.. so the best people to ask are those who you might report to and your co-workers... a lot of time they will let you know the unwritten rules of a place if you are new..

But just in response of feeling comfortable in doing it while on clock.... man, maximize your time every way you can. If they have no problem with it, and it don't hurt your work, don't feel bad at all.

chrisone

+1 All day every day!

Anyone discouraging you to become a better/smarter and efficient worker is jealous and is afraid of your success. F*#K them!

Akaricloud

I've never been in an environment where there is true downtime since there are always ongoing projects to work on, upgrades to be planned, ect.

I just can't really justify in my mind not starting on a project to study or not looking ahead at what needs to be done next. I have a hard time finding how everyone seems to have so much downtime.

I usually end up studying on breaks, lunch and sometimes stay late to read a chapter or two of something.

nosoup4u

All day, erry' day!

Saundie

I wish I worked in an environment where it were possible; unfortunately I have to answer the phone when it rings, which means I am being constantly interrupted. I would definitely take advantage of being able to study while at work if it were possible.

stlsmoore

I used to when my NOC shifts were on the weekends back in the day. Nowaday's there's no way I could find enough downtime to get any decent studying in.

lunchbox67

If I had a lot of free time to study I would not feel very comfortable in my position being around much longer. I know I would not feel the need or want to pay someone to do nothing.

broli720

+1 All day every day!

At this phase in our project that's all I really do. Picked up python and C in the last two months because of it hahaha

FloOz

I have a hard time focusing at work but I do try to lab in packet tracer as much as I can. I also pick the brains of some of the network engineers if I am ever stumped on a topic.

RomBUS

I will join this party! Oh yeah all day every day!

I have dead times at various points during the day and I take advantage as much as I can!

Daniel333

Direct studying? No.

But I make a direct connection to what ever I am doing. E.g. I installed a bunch of MySQL servers a few months ago. So I used it as an excuse to take a company sponsored SQL class and an 12 hour online class in MySQL class.

Basically if you have to X amount of work, extend it by 20-30%. I find this SAVES a lot of time in the long run. Because most training etc includes pitfalls and warnings.

I tend to use the table of contents of many books as guides for my documentation as well. So if you can connect it directly with what you are doing you'll get double the benefit out of it.

tpatt100

I do probably 90 percent of my schoolwork and cert studying at work...

broli720

tpatt100 wrote: »

I do probably 90 percent of my schoolwork and cert studying at work...

Me too man. Me too hahaha

StussyNz

+1. At the end of the day if you are "Learning" and it's going to improve your performance at work later on down the track I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed.

Anonymouse

Before I got into IT I studied for my A+ on my lunch breaks only at work. When I worked at a super busy helpdesk I tried studying in between calls and on breaks/lunch but wasn't successful with that at all. I'd like to give studying another try at my current new job but it's so busy and I feel like I'm learning a lot just by doing my daily work that I don't even bother. Though that being said I will be taking some CCNA classes for fun but that's not at work though.

YFZblu

In my current position I have a significant amount of downtime, and I do use it to study.

veritas_libertas

Whenever I get the chance. However, I find it very difficult to focus enough to read. I can go through Boson practice tests and use GNS3 without any trouble though.

Mike-Mike

YFZblu wrote: »

In my current position I have a significant amount of downtime, and I do use it to study.

same boat here....

I'm more or less a network monitor, and things are pretty slow on the night shift, so there is a ton of downtime to kill

olaHalo

i study more at work then i work at work
however i have a laid back job, just answering phones and simple website updates

CISPhD

I work as a manager within my department. When I'm budgeting for the following year's financial and personnel requirements, I include a 15% buffer in all projects for the assumption that at least 1 hour of my staff's day (NOT their lunch) should be dedicated to their professional career advancement. Whether it is to study more about what they are working on now, or to study what they want to be "when they grow up". Assigning my engineers time to study with on the job training is an investment in their ability, and subsequently an investment in my company. Employees who are engaged and learning new materials are happy employees. Happy employees stick around longer. The longer an employee sticks around, the less money I have to commit to employee turnover, spin up, rebuilding lost "tribal" knowledge, etc... I think you can see where I'm headed with this.

If you don't have an opportunity to study FREQUENTLY... you're employer isn't really invested in you. That being said, if your employer isn't invested in you, and you aren't happy doing what you're doing... Then why the heck are you still sitting in that chair?

nel

CISPhD wrote: »

I work as a manager within my department. When I'm budgeting for the following year's financial and personnel requirements, I include a 15% buffer in all projects for the assumption that at least 1 hour of my staff's day (NOT their lunch) should be dedicated to their professional career advancement. Whether it is to study more about what they are working on now, or to study what they want to be "when they grow up". Assigning my engineers time to study with on the job training is an investment in their ability, and subsequently an investment in my company. Employees who are engaged and learning new materials are happy employees. Happy employees stick around longer. The longer an employee sticks around, the less money I have to commit to employee turnover, spin up, rebuilding lost "tribal" knowledge, etc... I think you can see where I'm headed with this.

If you don't have an opportunity to study FREQUENTLY... you're employer isn't really invested in you. That being said, if your employer isn't invested in you, and you aren't happy doing what you're doing... Then why the heck are you still sitting in that chair?

wow, i never knew you guys existed

Psoasman

YFZblu wrote: »

In my current position I have a significant amount of downtime, and I do use it to study.

Me too. Taking a break right now from KET1. Can't say I'm a fan of Java.

cbolar

As a business owner I'd say study as long as there is no work to be done. But make sure your employer is alright with it first.

W Stewart

CISPhD wrote: »

I work as a manager within my department. When I'm budgeting for the following year's financial and personnel requirements, I include a 15% buffer in all projects for the assumption that at least 1 hour of my staff's day (NOT their lunch) should be dedicated to their professional career advancement. Whether it is to study more about what they are working on now, or to study what they want to be "when they grow up". Assigning my engineers time to study with on the job training is an investment in their ability, and subsequently an investment in my company. Employees who are engaged and learning new materials are happy employees. Happy employees stick around longer. The longer an employee sticks around, the less money I have to commit to employee turnover, spin up, rebuilding lost "tribal" knowledge, etc... I think you can see where I'm headed with this.

If you don't have an opportunity to study FREQUENTLY... you're employer isn't really invested in you. That being said, if your employer isn't invested in you, and you aren't happy doing what you're doing... Then why the heck are you still sitting in that chair?

You sir are a competent manager. Very hard to come by but businesses either run well or run into the ground based on decisions you make. Not enough employers are willing to invest in their employees these days but I'm lucky enough to finally be working at a job that does so another +1 for studying at work. I've learned so many little details about linux that I may not have wasted time learning before but it has only made me better at my job.

Roguetadhg

+1. At the end of the day if you are "Learning" and it's going to improve your performance at work later on down the track I don't see why you shouldn't be allowed.

Because some employers are afraid you'll leave them.

Then why the heck are you still sitting in that chair?

Pays the bills. Full-Time employment & Steady employment. Gotta make sure I can get money to supply me with the nutritional supplement to learn.

With that said - I do study at work.

Everything is out of my pocket (Labs, Books, Time), not encouraged and told "You shouldn't study so much." I do study at work. However, Happiness with the employment is a different story - I'm studying to gtfo-asap.

Studying linux has been more of a hassle because my department "Doesn't concern themselves with Linux beyond knowing how to pull up the ip address."

kremit

langenoir wrote: »

What are your thoughts on studying while at work? For the purposes of this question let's assume that you're sticking to material that is directly relevant to your org.

Ask. Don't assume anything. All IT managers from the CIO to my own boss are against studying of any kind at work. Their thoughts behind it is, it is their time and you are wasting it if you are doing anything but company related.

NinjaBoy

Studying and learning, while closely related, are two different things.

At our place, we're learning all the time. However as for studying (being the IT manager) I allocate 1/2 day every week or fortnight for Continuing professional development (CPD), this includes studying for exams and/or qualifications (however the last couple of months it's been on hold while we find a replacement tech as we're short staffed).

I'm a firm believer in CPD (like my old IT manager at the organisation where I got my first proper IT job) and succession management (like my current manager, who is the Business Manager at the place where I work now), so much so that I even set up a private prometric testing centre, a Certiport testing centre and ETA-i testing centre for both staff and external people to use for technical exams. As for secondary skills (including soft skills) we've even put some of our staff members thru qualification programs like Management, team leading, customer services and business & admin. Added to that, we've put some thru the office based exams.

So there are organisations out there that invest in staff

ehnde

Is your work mostly proactive or reactive? Does your boss delegate or micromanage? Those two questions weigh in heavily here. If you work at a service desk taking 60 calls per day, or your boss is always watching you...yeah...you probably don't study at work.

I do, and it's encouraged. It makes me better at my job.

nosoup4u

ehnde wrote: »

Is your work mostly proactive or reactive? Does your boss delegate or micromanage? Those two questions weigh in heavily here. If you work at a service desk taking 60 calls per day, or your boss is always watching you...yeah...you probably don't study at work.

I do, and it's encouraged. It makes me better at my job.

Pretty much what I'm gathering as well. My boss is in Houston, I'm in Seattle supporting 300 customers in Wash and Canada.

I brought it up earlier this year when I asked for tuition reimbursement for WGU and he said "As long as I never get a call from your customers study all you can at work."

I've meet the guy in person twice a year for my review and for our yearly group hug in Houston.

remote sites so much

Roguetadhg

^

Continuing development has gotten me better at my job. I'm sure everyone can use a little bit of gease around the troubleshooting wheels once in a while.

For me, the reason why I don't get called on it -as much- is because Every ticket gets cleared out. As I work on tickets, there's not a problem! I would definitely say if I didn't do my work that would be a different story. That, to me, is completely understandable.