Written proof

All companies say they want to encourage their staff to improve their skills and keep learning, but in practice they don’t really want to invest in same. Especially if “invest” involves them shelling out any money.

At any rate, my employer has reinstated its tuition reimbursement benefit, announcing the revival of the program in the same email in which they unveiled the employee recognition scheme. The rules for the partial reimbursement pretty much guarantee that no one is going to be able to make any calls on the company purse, as “participation in the program must be approved by the employee’s manager, the organizational unit head and by Human Resources in advance of course registration.” And it’s been my observation and experience that the head of HR doesn’t feel like she’s done her job unless she’s interfered in other departments’ operations, particularly when there’s money involved.

And, as it turns out—these particular costs are charged to HR. So that’ll be the kiss of death.

(As an aside, reimbursement is limited to a maximum of $3000 per calendar year. I don’t know what decade the policy was written in, but graduate-level courses at schools in the D.C. area are in the neighborhood of $2000-$3000 a pop. It would take you a long time indeed to complete your degree if you were depending on the company to help you with the costs.)

However, I could stand a top-up of my skills so I had a look at some writing courses in nearby universities, and came across this listing at George Washington University:

Let me just say that I don’t really feel entirely confident in the writing instruction of an institution that misuses the verb “comprise”.

So I guess I’ll keep looking.