To give light to the situation: I am currently one of two programmers working in

Question

To give light to the situation: I am currently one of two programmers working in a small startup software company. Part of my job requires me to learn a Web development framework that I am not currently familiar with. I get paid by the hour.

So the question is: Is it wholly ethical to spend multiple hours of the day reading through documentation and tutorials and be paid for this time where I am not actively developing for our product? Or should the bulk of this learning be done at home, or otherwise off hours, to allow for more full-on development of our application during the work day?

Explanation / Answer

If your employer wants you to spend your days learning the framework then great, it's both ethical and legal. I've done this in the past, both as a consultant (my consulting company paid) and as an employee. They do it because it makes you more useful. Win-win, assuming what you're learning is useful.

If you were hired on the basis that you know it or will pick it up really quickly (it's a dialect of something you already know, for example), then it's tricky. I'd be inclined to ask the employer.

If your employer is asking you to spend a lot of your own time learning something you were told they'd pay you to learn, then it's a question of how much you need the job and how useful the framework knowlege is. I don't think it's ethical for the employer to demand this of you, but you might have to do it if this is your only available work.

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