[SlightRespect]

I work in an organization that asks for innovation, but doesn't allocate any budget for R&D or investigative projects. The company also doesn't have any culture of being ok with taking big swings and accepting misses.

The project deck is fully loaded with status quo type projects, based on client demands. Teams are asked to track all of their hours toward these projects.

The subtext is, "Do the grunt work during your 40 hours that we're sure will generate revenue, and please, please, do something innovative on top of that on your own time/dime".

It just comes off as begging.

[ManlyBread]

My previous workplace was exactly like that: they wanted people to build "cool tools that would help us do our job" but would not even let me refactor a piece of ugly code (I literally just wanted to have variable names that actually mean something). It's quite a pathetic display when a manager talks about innovation when devs are stuck with ancient versions of software they work with and there is zero chance of getting the corporate machine to allow us to update and even if we had the permission everything would move so slow that by the time the upgrade happens the software would already be old.

[maxxxxx]

In my company it’s the same. They ask for innovation but the real message is “do something innovative but don’t change anything and always stay on your already tight schedule and don’t do anything management doesn’t approve “

[bluetwo]

Corporate culture emminates from the top.

You can't have a leader that rewards/punishes one way and managers who pick a different approach.

So it only really works if those at the top embrace these ideas, otherwise you end up with this system where they communicate they value innovation, but in their behavior fail to do so.

[joker3]

Same. This seems to be remarkably common.

[dlahoda]

same for me. it was even worse - you over over 40 hours. show how to do useful - but than stop - nothing happens.