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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twodogs62

Depends on where you work.
some bosses will see that you are studying to get new job.
studying and learning are two different things.
i'm too busy at work to study, But if issue comes up I work thru the problem and then may spending extra time learning something new that will help me fix problem faster.
usually it is focused learning on the subject I need to do my job better.

Iristheangel

My old job used to let me study all the time while I was there but my current job is a lot busier and I rarely have downtime to study during the 8 hour business day. I try to show up extra early to study before work and use most of my lunch to study if I can. My new job makes balancing certifications, work, and school a bit more challenging to say the least but it's worth it. I'm getting my hands on ISE, CUCM 9, Presence, ASAs, WAN, 2951s, 3750s, ASRs, 2960s, etc. Pretty much all the new and hot technologies so I'm learning while at work

langenoir

Wow, so many responses, and I've been busy with well, work, ha.

I've honestly never had a problem with it in the past, but I just joined a company where I want to do well and there is A LOT of stuff that is over my head. I've always tried to schedule the first hour of every day to studying things that are directly related to my job even if I'm not testing.

I got my CCNA 3 years ago and have used it very little. Last job was a Sonicwall shop, new job is all Cisco again. So I see studying for my CCNA Security and maybe some Data Center (Nexus) courses because it directly ties into what I am tasked to maintain. Now if I wanted to learn Citrix, which we do not use, that should be done in my offtime.

I've always had a problem with this idea that it's not being productive or that it would even be considered downtime because well it's not like many employers train you, especially in this field. If something is broke that absolutely needs to be fixed this very second, then sure that takes priority. But if there is an issue that can wait an hour I'll put it off.

langenoir

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?

Well put CISPhD!

N2IT

Not a chance in hell. I've been apart of several projectized service transitions and there is never enough time in the day for anything.

blargoe

I've found that I have moved up in position, there is less opportunity for "downtime" study and it is less acceptable in general. I have been lucky enough to be strategic with the training courses and projects that I have worked on in the past few years that matched what I wanted in certification/experience, though.

dave330i

blargoe wrote: »

I have been lucky enough to be strategic with the training courses and projects that I have worked on in the past few years that matched what I wanted in certification/experience, though.

Similar to what I'm going through at my new job. I need to know just about everything VMware offers.

filkenjitsu

I have no time to study! I have a long list of tasks I must get done all the time at work. I study at home every night though.

j23evan

I'm at work right now... and studying... ... =D

tpatt100

I have ran into problems a long time ago when studying at work. I had a coworker doing the same thing as I was which was going to school. Problem was I studied when I could but I did not EXPECT to be able to study at work. My coworker? He would try and get an assignment done at work and we would get a ton of calls and actually blame work for not being able to get his assignment done.....

coreyb80

YFZblu wrote: »

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

Same here. I'm presently studying for my A+ to test next month.

f0rgiv3n

"If you're not moving forward, you're falling backward"

If I don't feel like my job is challenging me enough to move me forward I have to supplement my work with certs/studying. And at that point I have enough downtime to study. Also, I have not had a boss yet that says "no" to me wanting to better myself as an employee.

apr911

blargoe wrote: »

I've found that I have moved up in position, there is less opportunity for "downtime" study and it is less acceptable in general. I have been lucky enough to be strategic with the training courses and projects that I have worked on in the past few years that matched what I wanted in certification/experience, though.

Ive actually more often found the inverse to be true. As I've moved up Ive often been allotted more time to study. I attribute it to a few things:

1. As a senior (or more senior) admin, I expect and am expected to be the escalation point and am held more responsible/accountable for issues. Therefore, I damn sure better know how its deployed, how it works, how to find what went wrong and how to fix it.
2. Since the senior admins are generally working on projects, escalations and other long running issues, most of the day-to-day tasks are farmed out to junior admins. Therefore my work load tends to fluctuate more than when I was a junior admin. Ultimately, while my total work load as a whole may be greater, the work load on any given day does tend to be less than that of a junior admin's day most of the time.

kremit wrote: »

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.

If a company took that stance with me, I would not be at that job for very long. Sorry but whether Ive allowed you to use my credentials in your vendor-partner status or not, the company benefits from having a well educated, trained and credentialed employee and I find the idea that time spent learning anything even only marginally job related is time wasted to be a joke. If you arent going to provide me adequate time to maintain those credentials then I would just as soon let them lapse (or not tell you that they'd been renewed) then allow you to continue to use them to your advantage; you have no business reaping the benefits of something I earned/maintained on my own time.

I can think of only 1 field that truly "requires" any credential for continued employment: anything that falls under DOD 8570. And for that I suppose the argument could go that you need to maintain the credential on your own time or you'll lose your job. On the other hand, if you dont maintain the credential on your own time then the company is left down an employee.

This could be quite unexpected too since the company cannot require hard-evidence on the status/progress of your CPE's/renewal if its not part of your goals and if they make it part of your goals then it becomes part of your job and thus something that should have time allotted during your working hours to complete.

Bottomline, if you're OK with someone working for you losing a particular credential then I guess you'll have no problem with losing someone with that credential as an employee.

I firmly believe all of the above stands true even for those earning and/or maintaining certifications not directly related to an employee's job description as the company will still see benefits from this. Im a perfectly good example of that. Im a network admin but I maintain my windows certifications and will soon be working on my RHCSA. Although maintaining my windows certifications and earning my RHCSA are not required in my current role the company has benefited tremendously from the fact that I know and understand the OS side.

I cant tell you how many times I've had things escalated to me for exactly this reason: the OS team couldnt get the the Network team to understand they're requirements or vice-versa and it was sent to me as a dual-skilled tech to make it all work and play nice together.

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?

Where do you work? Are you hiring? Can I come work for you?

Seriously though CISPhD, this is awesome and Im sure you have some really happy employees as a result of your investment in them!

If the company isnt invested in you, why should you invest your time, experience and certifications in the company?

WilliamK99

I am in a unique situation as an instructor for the US Army. I have to study to improve myself and become a better instructor. I am basically given free reign to study whatever I want as long as it is related to a course that we have in our section. But even when I worked at a Helpdesk for the Army I encouraged my subordinates to study as much as they could as any studying done directly benefits the military long-term and themselves when they get out.