Today we have a guest editorial as Steve is out of the office. This editorial was originally published on 5 Dec, 2016.

Many discussions occur about work/life balance. It appears that most people are striving to achieve a good balance or, at least, are aware of it. I believe that this is exceptionally important and am critical of myself for doing so badly at it. I am improving but too slowly.

We can further break down the work aspect. What I am considering today is whether we, as a collective, are achieving a proper work/training balance. By this I am considering the work aspect of the classical work/life balance and asking how many of us put in enough time to maintain our own skill set at a high enough level required to perform our work duties. Some companies help out here by providing on the job training, some individuals help themselves by putting in effort in their own time, some people benefit from both and there are even those that apply neither.

Of course, doing neither may be a valid option. For example, if you are working on a technology that is not changing in your environment, your job appears safe and you are retiring soon, then you may feel that there no longer is any benefit to develop your work skills. Or maybe you are about to change careers.

I suspect for the majority of us we still need to maintain some work/training balance. Without the assistance of employers, either directly by supplying formal training or indirectly by allocating time, we may struggle to find this balance inside of an appropriate work/life balance.