I've worked for HP (one of the examples in the article) since 1999 and even back then the free-time thing has been talked about as something from the "old days" when the HP way was still intact. I also did a stint at HP labs in 1988 and back then I remember my mentor showing me labstock and he told me that if I needed any stuff for a side project, even outside of work, I could use what was there. However, I never witnessed anyone taking advantage of that, people were way too busy on their main projects and had other hobbies outside of work (not many PCs and no internet back then).
On the other hand I'm extrememly fortunate that I've always worked on projects where 80% of the time felt like working on my favorite hobby - building prototypes, coding, working with other HP sites across the globe.
I think if I had to look for 20% of "fun" time I'd surely look for a different job. I think a better strategy for large companies would be to get your employees to spend 20% on learning new stuff and I'm not talking about online classes or touchy-feely offsites.
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I've worked for HP (one of the examples in the article) since 1999 and even back then the free-time thing has been talked about as something from the "old days" when the HP way was still intact. I also did a stint at HP labs in 1988 and back then I remember my mentor showing me labstock and he told me that if I needed any stuff for a side project, even outside of work, I could use what was there. However, I never witnessed anyone taking advantage of that, people were way too busy on their main projects and had other hobbies outside of work (not many PCs and no internet back then).
On the other hand I'm extrememly fortunate that I've always worked on projects where 80% of the time felt like working on my favorite hobby - building prototypes, coding, working with other HP sites across the globe.
I think if I had to look for 20% of "fun" time I'd surely look for a different job. I think a better strategy for large companies would be to get your employees to spend 20% on learning new stuff and I'm not talking about online classes or touchy-feely offsites.