If you're working for a company arguing this way, you might wanna look for one that doesn't think its employee's education is a spare time activity. No weekend conferences for me.
Stefan Tilkov @stilkov
11 Sep 2019
Replying to @stilkov
I get that not everyone can go visit a conference on company time, and some (or maybe many or even most) have to use their free time to do so. I don’t think it’s a huge difference whether you’re going for a weekend or use two days of vacation, though?
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Replying to @odrotbohm
I get the sentiment and agree, but there are a ton of reasons why your employer might not want you to do this in your spare time, e.g. if the conference has got nothing to do with your line of work, or there’s a generous budget you’ve already spent, or whatever

Sep 11, 2019 · 11:01 AM UTC

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Replying to @stilkov
There are shades of gray, of course. It's just that I've seen employers who forbid employees to attend workday conferences solely because weekend ones existed. So I decided I didn't want to be part of that kind of incentive. Oh, yeah, and family and music and… 🙃
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Replying to @stilkov @odrotbohm
I also never understood why ‚it motivates me to learn new stuff which we may not use already‘ was not a valid argument for many German employers. This helps driving innovation. But it’s more a mid- long-term investment.
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