[mikecaron]

Self-development can also be encouraged by a company though, by throwing dollars at you. I am often suggesting to go to conferences that my company views as "small" and "not immediately relevant" or that they talk about tech that is "so bleeding edge, it might not be around later".

The value comes from allowing employees to get a little elbow room, think out of the box, grow their skill-set and become more valuable to you. When you show employees that you want them to be better and you'll give them space to do that (and money), they want to stay there.

Why would I, as a husband and father, want to sacrifice very precious vacation time to attend a tech-conference instead of play at a water park with my kids, or invest in my relationship with my wife on a romantic getaway? I wouldn't. But what my company, and several others out there, says by their lack of support for personal development is, "hey, you wanna be a better programmer... great. We'd love that too. Go do it on your own time. That's what we give you vacation for! Not to wind down and unplug and be a great daddy, you kiddin' me?"

The company expresses value for you by letting you have a bit of room to do things you want to.