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Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

sloanreview.mit.edu

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Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#351

Post by TrackerFF »

jdlyga wrote: post #42

It's all a holdover from assembly-line factory jobs. You need to start at a specific time and work hard the whole shift. If you're 3 minutes late, the line is delayed by 3 minutes. Software development is a very different profession.

If you ever find yourself in a position or company where your boss says to you "You're not here to learn, you're here to work", and measures productivity by how many hours you sit behind a screen, or LOC pushed, then you'r more likely than not working in a sweatshop.

The problem, in my experience, is when they bring in non-technical managers in, preferably from completely other environments (production / manufacturing / industry).

Luckily it's getting more rare these days, but I've seen managers that were hired on the basis "a good manager is a good manager, no mater where he/she comes from", only to manage production floor like a factory.

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#352

Post by abacadaba »

fastbeef wrote: post #303
vorpalhex wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory, scrum is supposed to provide intentional non-ticket time after retro and before the next ipm/scrum meeting. That time can and should be used for learning, hacking, contributing, etc. Reality of course differs.

I was so stoked when I read about that part of scrum back in 2006. Not once has it materialized since.

Are there still places left that don't do scrum? Hopeless to put "I am working for a workplace that does not practice scrum/sprints" in my cover letter?

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#353

Post by lonelappde »

holmboy_ wrote: post #294
sasper wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an engineering manager, this is what I expect my top performers to do and encourage my junior folks to do the same. It benefits the IC, the delivery team, and the company at large. You can't heads-down slam out code for 8 hours a day 5 days a week. Be responsible with your time and use it to push forward the vision & mission of the company by taking your professional development into your own hands.

Continuing education in software engineering has always been a challenge for me. While my current employer allows for 20% time to learn new things, I find that I'm just unable to. Many employers (not all) place constraints on what one can do with that time. Typically the biggest constraint is that it must relate to the business in some way. As such, it can be hard to justify why you're spending your 20% time learning…

You don't have time to learn, but you have time to build an app backed by a service?

Or was that a faux story for your sales pitch?

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#354

Post by Ididntdothis »

abacadaba wrote: post #352
fastbeef wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was so stoked when I read about that part of scrum back in 2006. Not once has it materialized since.

Are there still places left that don't do scrum? Hopeless to put "I am working for a workplace that does not practice scrum/sprints" in my cover letter?

Actually almost nobody does Scrum. They use some artifacts from Scrum but leave out the important parts.

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#355

Post by gherkinnn »

Ididntdothis wrote: post #175
msluyter wrote: post #94

When I was a dev lead I came up with the concept called a "learning spike," where a developer would pick a focused topic to dive into for a set period of time[1] and then do a short[2] presentation of learnings to the entire team. This would be backed by an official story in Jira or whatnot. The goal would be for the developer to choose something that sparked their interest (within the loose boundaries that it be at…

“I think the problem was that the short term opportunity costs were too high when everything was on fire (which was often).” That’s such a sad way of thinking but pretty common. In addition a lot of people seem to be thinking that if not everything is on fire all the time they are moving too slowly.

I found that a sustainable pace with short bursts of fire make for the fastest progress.

Fires keep you on edge, show you what’s actually important, and help trim fat. But without long period of calm in between, I can’t consolidate what I’ve learned, nor build upon that wealth.

Quite like endurance training, actually.

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#356

Post by gherkinnn »

ConfusedDog wrote: post #254

I was publicly told by my immediate supervisor to stop once reading a technical book on the job for a degree my company has paid for. Apparently that was unacceptable behavior. I quit the company after I earned that degree. My experience is that most people quit because of poor management.

Something like 70% quite because of a shitty boss.

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#357

Post by [deleted] »

yters wrote: post #312
Braggadocious wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's sortof what the enlightenment was about... The enlightenment period was a decentralization of information caused by the reinvention and widespread use of the printing press in europe. During the dark ages europe's literacy rate was comparable to pre-mesopotamia. The fall of the roman empire lead to a fracturing of european civilization, the near-total loss of literacy, latin fractured into a dozen languages be…

The precise narrative you just articulated is that of the enlightenment in the 18th century, which is a period much latter than the invention of the printing press and Protestantism. A good book for you to check out is Rodney Stark's "For the Glory of God", written by a secular historian debunking much of the above narrative. The fact that many educated today take your narrative for unarguable fact also illustrates t…

[deleted]

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#358

Post by fogetti »

chewyshine wrote: post #92

Folks, there's so much cynicism here. If you want to learn and invest in yourself, do it! If you want to sit back and wait for your employer to invest in you, don't be surprised when it doesn't happen. Orgs need to make smart investment decisions. If you're not feeling supported it may be that the org doesn't view you as HiPo and that's clear feedback on your current value to the organization.

The problem with your argument is: what if the organization doesn't support anyone in learning? (Just like 99% of companies and society in large) Would you say then that you are a low performer? Because based on your argument that's the only logical conclusion.

You seem to have jumped to a conclusion but I don't think this has anything to do with being high performer or not.

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#359

Post by gcpwnd »

I've just quit my job after almost a decade. The fact that my employer did absolutely zero to improve my skills, aside from conferences once a year makes me really sad. The longer I think about it the more abusive it seems. In these times there is no excuse to leave your employees behind. But it should be well planned and not just jump every hypetrain.

Re: Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it

#360

Post by lonelappde »

uxp100 wrote: post #315
hamandcheese wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe make tickets for your learning activities?

Heh, would not go over well. Now that we have JIRA, tickets are not just watched by my boss, but my bosses boss, my bosses bosses boss, and a few dedicated project managers of some kind.

Use code words.
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