Side project time

As an employee benefit, some employers offer a guarantee that employees may work on their personal projects during some part (usually a percentage) of their time at work.[1][2] Side project time is limited by two stipulations: what the employee works on is the intellectual property of their employer, and if requested, an explanation must be given as to how the project benefits the company in some way, even tangentially.[3][4]

Google is credited for popularizing the practice that 20 percent of an employee's time may be used for side projects.[5] At Google, this led to the development of products such as AdSense.[6][7] While Gmail is frequently described as a 20% project, its creator Paul Buchheit states that it was never one.[8] Though the program's continuity has been questioned,[9] Google claims that it remains an active program.[10]

Other major companies that have at one time or another offered some or all of their employees the benefit include the BBC (10 percent of employee time),[11] Apple (a few contiguous weeks yearly),[2] and Atlassian (20 percent of employee time).[5] Some companies, such as LinkedIn, have experimented with more restrictive versions in which employees must first pitch their projects to receive approval to work on them during company time.[5]

Side project time has been criticized by some academics, such as Queens College sociology professor Abraham Walker, as "exploitative" because of how it grants employers the intellectual property rights over the personal business ideas of their employees that the employer would never have requested to be worked on otherwise.[12]

  1. ^ Robinson, Adam (12 March 2018). "Google Employees Dedicate 20 Percent of Their Time to Side Projects. Here's How It Works". Inc.com. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  2. ^ a b Cheng, Jacqui (13 November 2012). "Apple's Tim Cook beefing up employee perks, personal project time". Ars Technica. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  3. ^ Geitz, Samantha (6 December 2016). "Why You Should be Giving Your Developers 20% time". Tighten. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  4. ^ Bick, Julie; Mediratta, Bharat (21 October 2007). "The Google Way: Give Engineers Room". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Xu, Tammy (6 October 2020). "How Side Project Programs Foster Creativity at Work". Built In. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference :10 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ "How Gmail Happened: The Inside Story of Its Launch 10 Years Ago". April 2014.
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference :11 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Murphy, Bill Jr. (1 November 2020). "Google Says It Still Swears By the 20 Percent Rule to Find Big Ideas, and You Should Totally Copy It". Inc.com. Retrieved 17 August 2022.
  11. ^ Ferne, Tristan (8 January 2008). "BBC - Radio Labs: 10 percent time". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
  12. ^ Walker, Abe (2011). "Creativity loves constraints": The paradox of Google's twenty percent time. Ephemera, 11: 369–386.