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Admittedly there are only two of us — but we have reading on our company calendar. Thirty minutes every day 3:30-4pm. Because learning new stuff and getting alternate perspectives is bloody important.

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At my first job, there were periods where I didn't have much to do. So I thought, instead of mindlessly surfing the Internet, I'll read to improve my knowledge. It was a large company and they had hundreds of computer books. So I got one from the library and started reading it during a down time.

My manager comes over and says "There's no reading during work." (I was reading The Mythical Man-Month so it wasn't like I was reading a novel or anything).

I'm not there anymore but I still do take 30 minutes to read daily. I just do it more discreetly by using Safari Books Online and don't ask for permission.

It's good to hear there are forward looking companies out there. Everyone should make a little time to do things that won't benefit you today, but will benefit you in 6 months.

I can't remember if it's the MyMaMo which has the "why aren't you working, what are you doing?" "thinking" "can't you do that at home?" anecdote but that's brilliant managerial madness in a nutshell.

"I'm not there anymore"

I'm hardly [epithet] surprised!

Why did they buy books if they did not want them to be read and turned into action!

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