Why a manager may not want you to learn

All the possibilities are valid and, as you know, I experienced some of these recently. However, I think you may have missed an issue that is not directly germane to the topic of learning issues in the work place. A manager has a life apart from the work place. We all strive to not let our personal lives interfere with work, but this is much easier when that life is going well. When a person faces a crisis it may tend to exaggerate some of the insecurities you noted. In reference to the “experience” I noted above, I knew my supervisor had some of those inclinations, but when I first worked with him he kept them in check to the point where they were tolerable. When we worked together again a little over a year later he was facing a personal crisis. I was not unsympathetic, but it’s easier to be understanding when one’s bad behavior is not directed at you. The most wise lesson I received from any counseling class was the following; “Just because someone is really hurting does not mean they have the right to crap all over you.” My experience was made worse by upper management’s lack of concern regarding one of their key employees. I am referring to my supervisor not me. If they had intervened correctly I believe the situation would have changed. For the record they did intervene, but it was in the form of threats. This made the situation worse by causing him to feel less secure. I made a serious error in how I handled the situation. I should have stood up for myself more than I did. Having gone to upper management with the issue, I earned a reprimand for not going through channels! At that point I gave up and tried to live with it. Big mistake; the problem just got worse till I got fired. This I think was more to appease my supervisor than to solve a real issue on my part. It was a rare set of circumstances that required a normally unwise response. I should have just drawn a line in the sand to at least maintain myself respect. I made the decision to quit, but got fired 3 days before I had the chance to give notice.

In fairness i feel it's very important to note that recently my former supervisor apologized for his behavior. I was surprised and appreciated the gesture. I do wish him well, but i must confess I am not hoping for another opportunity to work with him.

I think I've been that boss before but I saw things in a different way.

Have you ever had an employee who claimed to have learned about how to do everything under the sun in languages X and Y in his spare time but who couldn't seem to get the job done in the languages everyone coded in at work? I have. I don't believe in discouraging learning either on the job or off. And I absolutely encourage learning on the job. That said, I expect everyone to be able to accomplish their actual work, too. And in whatever "blessed" languages and technologies are used by everyone else if possible.

Also, diving deeply into HR-speak here, it should be a manager's/mentor's job to help employees grow their careers. I can certainly see where a manager might advise people toward outside projects that would build on the skill bases they're also using at work. Not only would that help the individual employees, but it means they're better at their jobs. Win-win! Note: I think this point applies much less with more senior engineers because they already have a solid bunch of related skills and need to stretch themselves more outside their tech comfort zones to keep learning.

I completely agree that there are some bad boss behaviors in a lot of places. Maybe I'm a perpetrator myself, but I honestly try not to be. I think there are other motivations than the ones you've mentioned here and I don't think they're all inherently evil or controlling.

"Preview comment" is apparently broken. Sorry about the strange formatting of that previous reply.

Drew, with respect, going on the evidence contained in your comment, I don’t agree. I doubt you were one of those bosses. It seems, again going on content, you were doing a manager’s job. In my experience both for me and others I’ve managed, the most difficult task for a creative, talented developer is resisting the temptation to be overly creative. However, there are times when this is not the issue and a developer just can’t seem to get anything done regardless of what language they decide to use. This is very different that having a boss sabotage productivity or advancement. I’ve been in the business long enough to see most of the negative games bosses or coworkers can play. It was almost comical when my supervisor had me create a ridiculously detailed specification for a minor internal project. Upon review he told me to add items that were already in there. He finally gave up after hearing me say for the fourth time; “It’s in there…” I knew exactly what he was doing. I just could not understand why. I agree with you bad boss behavior is out there and I’m guilty of that too. The type of boss noted here in the article is in my experience uncommon, but exists. Again, respectfully, and stating that I believe you would be good to work with, other motivations here mean other priorities. The priorities you hint at have less to do with inhibiting a workers personal development than with just getting the job done so we can pay the bills.