Okay to learn on the clock?

[kornork]

Hey,

I'm a recent grad, working my first database/programming job, so there's a lot of things that I need to pick up before I can be fully functional. I know that a certain amount of on the job learning is expected, and that it shouldn't be a problem if my employer sees me digging through a reference book.

But is it a problem if I'm hunkered down, reading all the way through a book to learn something from scratch? I wasn't expected to know what I'm learning when I was hired, but I've decided it would make my job easier. Is this something I should do on my own time?


Thanks,
Josh

 

[Tracey]

I've even wrote a VB program that strips out the posts on these forums and reads them to me with a click of a button

I would be interested in hearing what technology you use to do that...
I would like to do something like that in Delphi

Tracey
Remember... True happiness is not getting what you want...

Its wanting what you have got!

 

[repete]

Tracey, for what its worth, refer to thread184-687849 to see a visual fox pro way of referencing FAQs.

Pete Bloomfield
Down Under

 

[BiggerDon]

One incident I can relate occured when our CEO asked me a technical question that I really couldn't remember the answer to. It had to do with some function in Word or Excel and I told him I'd be right back with the answer intending to just check it out on my system before showing him what to do. His response (in a joking manner) was, "You don't know the answer? What am I paying you the big bucks for?". I responded, "You don't pay me to know the answers. You pay me to know where the answers are!" He loved it and asked if he could use that with the auditors!

Read on, McDuff! That's were the answers to your future problems lie!

 

[zbnet]

There's a very wise saying: 'Perception is reality'.

It really doesn't matter whether you're the best, most qualified, most conscientious, most diligent worker there is, if your boss perceives you as under-performing then you will have problems.

On the other hand, you could be the biggest waste of space going, but if your boss thinks you're contributing then you will have no problems. You don't have to work for very long in pretty much any company around to discover people like this. They get promotions and pay rises faster than other people, and most 'normal' people resent them and say nasty things about them behind their backs.

You shouldn't try to be the second type of person, but you don't want to be misunderstood either. So my advice to you is to manage your boss's perception of what you do. I'm not saying you should exaggerate your abilities or performance beyond the truth, but you do need to make sure they know that you're doing your job, you are positive, you say yes more often than you say no, that they know when you're making sacrifices for the job, and that you enjoy working for them. That way they're far more likely to cut you some slack when they find you with your nose in a book, especially if you can (realistically) help them understand that the knowledge you gained enabled you to solve a problem that helps them.

 

[kornork]

I see truth in what you said, BiggerDon. I find it amazing that people still refer to me around here as "The Computer Guy" even when I rarely know the answers to their questions off the top of my head. Sometimes I just know to tell them where to right click on the screen and the solution presents itself, or I know how to go back to my desk and hit up Google for the answer. It's very convenient for me that no one here has figured out my tricks yet.

zbnet, sometimes I wonder if they keep me at my job because of the few small jobs that I've done well. I'm working on a larger project, but I think it's the "silly" little projects (like creating a template in Word) that, for some reason, really seem to impress them and create a positive perception of me. Maybe it's because if they see me doing my best at a job that they understand a little bit, they assume that I'm doing my best on a job they don't understand at all.

 

[zbnet]

Exactly. The things that are little to us are often big to other people (and the other way round, as well). Part of learning to do a job well is to a) learn what are the big things for the person you work for (it isn't always obvious), and b) to consciously make them a priority even though they're little things for us. Master that and you'll soon have an excellent reputation; and that will mean that management are prepared to overlook small failures and give you the benefit of the doubt when you do make mistakes (and we all do, we're all human after all).

Thanks for starting a very stimulating and interesting thread.

 

[Terpsfan]

I have no problem with learning "on the clock"...I call it Research and Development. Sometimes I will spend a few hours reading someting out of a book, in a magazine or just fooling around with code examples. Even though it's not on something that I am not directly working on, it's probable I will use it in the future to further my applications.