Professional development on my own dime - a sticky work question

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m mainly looking for some impressions from managerial / H.R. folks, but anyone else with opinions or observations please feel free…

I’ve been a member of a particular professional organization for nearly ten years, and have always enjoyed the annual conferences, during which I learn a lot, but also have a whole lot of fun. My field is what you might call a small niche - there aren’t a lot of us and so these gatherings are practically like family reunions. They’re good for the spirit.

Practically all the conferences I’ve attended have been spent on vacation time and paid for out of my own pocket - which I don’t at all mind. There’s never going to be budget enough at my workplace to pay those expenses, and that’s pretty typical of my peers.

But last year I was not granted the vacation time to attend because of the following stated reasons, coming from management:

  • It would be inappropriate to represent my institution when they are not sponsoring my presence there

  • It would be unfair to other staff members who might not be able to afford such a trip

  • If my peers were to learn I was paying for the trip myself, it would reflect poorly on my institution

Now these seem like flimsy arguments to me, and in fact I have all sorts of rebuttals, not the least of them being that I should be able to spend my earned vacation time anyhow I choose - but, well, I otherwise love my job and am extremely hesitant to make any sort of waves about this. Conference registration time is coming up soon, and I’m pretty sure I’d be turned down again.

Anything else I say is going to send this to Pit territory, so all I want to know is: is this normal? Rational? What, in fact, is the deal?

2

As an HR professional, I have to say it sounds a little short-sighted to me on your company’s part. My company would be thrilled if someone went to a professional conference on their own dime. After all, some professional growth is bound to occur, which obviously benefits the company.

If it were me, I would just request the vacation time this year and make no mention of the conference. What you do on your vacation time is really none of their business.

3

It certainly seems like a poor policy, with a rather flimsy rationale. Was there any explanation as to why they decided this was a bad idea? Did someone complain about it?

Some other questions to ask:

In what way? How are you representing the institution by attending? How is it any different from your going to a resort hotel and telling other guests where you work? I

Tell them you’d be happy to report on the conference to anyone whose interested.

Again, in what way? Who would even consider this angle? Who would even care? And how would they find this out, anyway?

The big issue with taking the time and not telling them is that they can not allow you to take your vacation that time. It may work for a year or so, but once they catch on, they’ll just double check the dates (I’m assuming the conference will have a website they can check) and force you to take your vacation another time.

In the long run, it’s best to try to find out the real reasons why this is an issue.

4

Unless you aren’t revealing something, this seems to be so FUBAR and PC gone horribly awry that I don’t know how to begin. If it were me, I would just treat the bosses like intellectual inferiors until they realized what they are doing. That may not play well in other industries however.

What industry is this?
What type of conference is this and what are the details?

Your OP sounds so off that I can’t imagine a life-form over a chimp acting that way.

5

I think that the only reason that has even the flimsiest of rationale is the first one. If you are at the conference wearing a badge with your company’s name on it, you are implicitly representing your company. And not knowing what you will be presenting in the conference, I can’t say if this is ok or not. But to be safe, just register as yourself with no affiliation, and you should be fine.

6

Not that I’ve heard of, but it’s not just me that’s been affected by this, so it’s nothing I personally did.

Those reasons I quoted come via my boss, via hers, via the people who made the decision. So I expect there a may be bit of a ‘chinese whispers’ problem here, but so far I’ve tried to respect the chain of command, and not go over people’s heads for answers. I’ve been asked to do this by my boss, too, btw - someone who I totally respect, who is also affected by this move, and is just as confused about it as I am.

My boss and I are the only ones on staff who would ever attend this particular conference. (I told you we were a niche!) And yes, they’d notice if we were both gone at the same time. As much as Emmy’s suggestion is tempting, I fear it wouldn’t fly, and could potentially backfire in an ugly way.

Shagnasty, I don’t think there’s anything I’m leaving out. The conference isn’t something scandalous, I’ve never caused anyone problems… I just don’t know!

As far as what I do… well, a little searching in the right places would probably get you the answer, but I’m not going to call attention to my particular employer in this thread. It’s a private non-profit. Email me for details if you think it’s relevant.

7

I am an HR professional and also attend professional development conferences on my own dime. It has always been a little awkward, so I have to say I am not shocked by your situation.

When I attend on my own dime, I don’t put my company affiliation on my name badge. My last employer had a lot of name recognition, so if I did I would definitely have been seen as representing them. This lessens my experience at the conference a bit, since everyone assumes I am an unemployed nobody…

I have always given my manager a heads up that I was attending and offered to share what I learned. Some managers thought what I was doing was awesome, others basically ignored it. Some coworkers were definitely resentful, to the point that once I didn’t even mention where I was. Another time, a coworker switched her vacation plans at the last minute to interfere with my plans.

So, what can I say that will be helpful to you? Yes, your coworkers may well be resentful. No, this is not legitimate. If your coworkers choose to make payments on a Chevy Monolith rather than attend the conference, so be it.

If you have previously registered on your own but appeared to represent your company, apologize for that and agree not to do it in the future. I’m sure a lot of people do this, but apparently it didn’t fly at your company, so go ahead and apologize.

I guess bottom line you should take this up to the right level of management/HR in your company to the point where they can see the value of employees like you who will go the extra mile. Specific examples of how this has helped the business will serve you well. Maybe you could suggest that the company send one person per year (every other year, whatever they can afford) and rotate it so you get a free conference occasionally, and a coworker gets to go occasionally. Maybe you have a single-parent coworker for whom the expense really isn’t feasible, and this would lower their resentment.

**Shagnasty ** - conferences are perceived very differently in consulting, where it is very well understood as part of keeping up your marketable skills, and staff roles, where conferences are often seen as perks for doing a good job and/or identification of future leaders. I’m not saying this isn’t FUBAR, but it is what it is.

8

Is there any reason, when you request to take your allowed vacation time during a certain period, why you have to tell your boss where you are going on that vacation?

9

Yes, there is a reason in the OP’s case. The employer has told him not to attend this conference. Failure to obey a legal and not physically dangerous work order is called insubordination, and it is usually grounds for firing someone. Is this an intelligent work order? I say no. But I don’t think there’s anything illegal or dangerous about it. So it is really in the OP’s best interest to work this out, not go against the boss’s wishes. Worst case scenario, the risk to the OP might be losing his job and possibly being declared ineligible for unemployment benefits.

10

How is ANYTHING to do with what an employee does on vacation time a legal work order??
And… is the real issue possibly: ‘if drewbert gets any more qualified, he’ll ask for a big raise or leave us, or both. We’ve got to keep him away from that conference!’ (Just wondering.)

11

Since when does the company have any right to tell you what to do on your free time? Last I heard, slavery was abolished in the US.

12

At will employment means you can be fired for any reason, or no reason, as long as it’s not a prohibited reason (race, sex, religion, whistleblowing, etc.). There are a few states that do protect any legal activities done outside of work hours (this typically comes up in terms of smoking). So the employee may have some recourse, but the employee really is at some risk here.

For example, put yourself in the employer’s shoes. What right does the government have to tell you you need to continue to employ someone you no longer want to employ? The answer is that we have laws to prevent the employer from firing someone based on race, sex, religion, etc. In many states the employer could still fire you for being gay, homosexuality not being a protected class under federal law.

Finally, anything the OP does that appears to represent the company, even on time off, is subject to the employer’s approval. The OP can’t, for example, hand out his company business cards to promote a side business.

US employment law is pretty employer-friendly in many ways.

The difference between at will employment and slavery is that the employee is free to part ways with the employer at will, also. It doesn’t mean the employee can do whatever, even on time off, and still have a job, though.

13

If you want to put it in those terms, I think I agree. To me, that isn’t the same as saying that for an employee to disobey a directive about what to do on his time off is ‘insubordination’. The employer has authority over the employee while the employee is at work or on the job… with certain understandings that the employee might be ‘on call’ on evenings or weekends to come in an emergency.

I still believe that an employer should not be able to issue orders about what an employee can’t do on their vacation time, (unless it’s something that otherwise violates their employment agreement, like disclosing company secrets to an outside party,) or fire someone ‘for insubordination’ if they refuse to comply. And yes, that’s nitpicking considering that they can pretty much let him go at any time regardless.

One relevant question is what is considered reasonable behavior by the other employees and prospective employees of the company. If they think that drewbert has a point, then the employer might be shooting itself in the foot or someplace even more tender, by picking a fight with him about it. An company without enough employees won’t last long.

14

Ok small point here

So when the boss goes to hawaii and I can’t afford it his vacation should be rejected?

Pronounced, we don’t invest in our employees, and don’t want outsiders to know.

How does the old saying go…people don’t respect what they don’t pay for…

I was going to CPIM classess on my own and was told my certification would be irrelevant for an inventory manager promotion.

15

Nobody’s in my line of work for the money :wink:

I thought the same thing: gee guys, cry me a river. It’s really true that there isn’t enough money to pay for conferences. But a lot of other people my field are in the same boat - they wouldn’t find it unusual at all.

Hey everyone, thanks for the comments. Especially Harriet - it’s actually good to know that my company isn’t necessarily being slowly taken over by pod people, even if it is an unfortunate decision on their part.

16

It’s pretty obvious.

Such conferences are well known for networking and making connections related to a new job.

Your employer is worried that you will find out about a job opportunity from some other organization, or actually get a job offer from somebody. Or that you will find out what other organizations pay, or what they offer in terms of professional development benefits – and they know it’s more than they are giving you.

When they start treating you like this, and trying to keep you isolated from your professional peers, it’s time to seriously start looking for an opportunity elsewhere.