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Unless you count productivity tools that I create to help me with the job, then never.
Edit: Actually, I've usually only worked on those personal productivity tools on my own time to avoid conflict. It's no fun explaining that the reason you aren't working on their punch list is because you have something more important. 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
modified 10-Feb-20 11:01am.
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That was most of my first three months in a job I had a while ago. It was very strange.
The irony of it was, when I finally got actual work to do, their "no work from home" policy was a real PITA, especially during snow days or when an appliance repair person was needed (and you know what wide range of hours those are!) So those days had to actually be taken as vacation days, or, since I was an hourly contractor, unpaid. WTF. And by "snow days", the manager told me "if there's not 2 feet of snow on the roads, you're coming in." He once said something about "Even if you have nothing to do, I want to see you warming your seat."
So, frankly, I really had no problem working on personal projects from home.
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Marc Clifton wrote: And by "snow days", the manager told me "if there's not 2 feet of snow on the roads, you're coming in."
I'd've tried putting the invoice for a snow-mobile into the expense reimbursement system just to make a point about how stupid the PHB was. 
If the snow on the road is deeper than my cars bumper I'm not driving. And even if I did have some sort of crazy jacked up truck with multiple feet of ground clearance I suspect that contraption would be so top heavy and rollover prone it'd have a lower maximum safe amount of snow limit than my Accord does.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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Dan Neely wrote: I'd've tried putting the invoice for a snow-mobile into the expense reimbursement system just to make a point about how stupid the PHB was.
Wish I'd thought of that!
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Some of us used to play computer games (on the 286 machines), while our programs ran on the mainframe. Once the mainframe program completed running, in about 20 minutes, used to go and see the results, and debug.
After joining office, all that fun was gone.
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I can't possibly see how that improves your productivity and throughput.
It's much easier to enjoy the favor of both friend and foe, and not give a damn who's who. -- Lon Milo DuQuette
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Depends on how 'far-sighted' your employer is - there's been several occasions where knowledge I've gained from (strictly speaking, 'private' study) have saved the bacon at work.
Try telling my boss, and I'd probably be censured for 'wasting' work time... 
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It depends a lot upon what you do as "your own projects".
In my chemist days it was the same. I heard about predator/pray simulations and happened to have read a paper about ligand substitution on Molybdenum Hexacarobnyl.
So I went and amused myself with my first Monte-Carlo model.
My employer has the patent that resulted from it (and eventual experimental proof) "Induced Surface Ensembles on Transition Metal Surfaces".
I guess it depend upon how one plays.
On the other hand - it seems all the "clerks" (and above) have phone on there desk that, when not streaming videos is otherwise sucking up about half their time. In this case, it's not even productive for some third party. That's a problem that's real and pressing.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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if you are getting paid money to work on your private projects, and you don't have an agreement with your employer to do that, then that is wrong, and you could actually be committing a crime.
I don't do that. ever. and it does not depend on anything.
It's much easier to enjoy the favor of both friend and foe, and not give a damn who's who. -- Lon Milo DuQuette
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Slacker007 wrote: if you are getting paid money to work on your private projects,
That I was not doing.
Building a website for a (really) non-profit and maintaining it, for example.
Others are just plain raw curiosity - like ODBC on Excel and Text files. Sure enough (actually, amazingly) the need to extract and manipulate Excel on its way to SQL occurred in less than two week. An import just didn't work for it.
I do agree that "freelancing" on company time, or billing A whilst working on B's project are unethical practices. Stealing is an appropriate description.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Strictly speaking there is no such thing as "office hours" as I am not paid hourly, but the rule is: I work on my personal project only:
- On my on personal computer &&
- Outside of the office (mostly at home) &&
- When not connected to my employer's network
Mixing work and personal projects is asking for trouble, IMHO.
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I work on "external" projects - (volunteer work/coding, actually) during slow periods in working hours.
It is there, however, that I picked up several languages which the company not long after needed "big time" as I became the lone web-developer for an .exe based company going to web-applications.
Not the first time that my entertainment ended up being their necessity rather soon after - and, if you were so thinking - not at my behest or other influence. It just works out that way.
If one likes to throw trite comments: "win-win".
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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