Side project time

Common card · No. 443248

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. 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. Google is credited for popularizing the practice that 20 percent of an employee's time may be used for side projects. At Google, this led to the development of products such as AdSense. While Gmail is frequently described as a 20% project, its creator Paul Buchheit states that it was never one. Though the program's continuity has been questioned, Google stated in 2020 that it remained an active program. 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), Apple (a few contiguous...

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