> Would it be okay to sit and read a book at your job?
Never had a job where the answer was yes, which is a shame, because that's still by far the fastest way to really "get" anything. They'd much rather I spend weeks googling one-off questions and wasting other people's time than being "unproductive" for a few days just going through actual documentation. Very frustrating.
Maybe a stupid question, but what would happen if you did?
I've never had a job explicitly tell me that I could just go read, but I've done just that at multiple jobs and no one has ever said anything about it.
Usually some form of snarky "we don't give you enough work to do?" from somebody who's not even my boss but one of those types who for some reason gets away with acting like he is.
Of course, with work from home, things are different, but I'm still at the mercy of the time-tracking system: every hour has to be accounted for and charged to a pre-approved bucket... and reading isn't in one of those buckets.
I've had the same experience. Obviously there's a balance here. You have to know what percentage of something does actually need to get done from day to day, but when things are slower I definitely spend my time reading. It's paid off too many times not to do so.
Here in Blighty, I've never had a job where taking time to research and read up wasn't expected. Personally, every employer I've had has also allocated several days a year to staff training; either classroom training or self-study as needed.
Never had a job where the answer was yes, which is a shame, because that's still by far the fastest way to really "get" anything. They'd much rather I spend weeks googling one-off questions and wasting other people's time than being "unproductive" for a few days just going through actual documentation. Very frustrating.