If you want to start a new career in an entirely new sphere, you may decide to prepare yourself while working in your office during work hours. But that wouldn’t be exactly fair, would it? What is the right decision, should you deceive your boss and colleagues, or it’s better to do your best at work and leave the side project for your free time?
Some people say their job is their life, that their work is completely satisfying and fulfilling they would never do something else. But how many of us can say the same? Not much, work is usually not very exciting, even dull and boring for many people, which is after all, quite normal. If work was fun and entertaining, we would just simply call it pleasure, not work. However, many people would start something new in order to escape the dryness and routine of their office jobs. Some will spend their work hours on the new project, but we say, that’s just wrong because you can be fired.
When you were hired at your current job, the basic idea of your contract was that you do your best at work in exchange for your salary. This is the basics in employer – employee relationship, and if you decide to learn and practice some new skills, this should not be during your working hours. Well, it doesn’t mean you should be always working and always thinking about your work – from 9 to 5 you belong to your company; the rest of the day is all yours. And you should be making the best of it – having some hobby make people happy.
Hobbies such as fishing, collecting football cards, playing video games, constructing mini car models, or game developing and so on, give you the opportunity to escape the every-day routine and do something enjoyable. And if you are on the point of making your hobby a money-making profession, good for you, there’s nothing wrong with that. But first, as we already mentioned, you need to prepare yourself outside of work. And second, to make sure you are good enough in your new profession you can actually make money of it. For this, you should prepare (learn or practice) by spending at least 1,000 hours on your new skill, or in other words – five hours weekly, an hour a day, for four years totally.
Yes, this doesn’t sound very nice, but that’s the right thing to do – taking into account both ethic and legal aspect of the issue. Otherwise, you may lose the company’s trust and your job, and honestly speaking, it will be justified.
