[Stonehenge]

I've tried to be generous when considering allowing employees to attend classes. For the most part, my policy has been, if there's a class you'd like to attend that would benefit the company in some way (a sell job is occasionally required), I'll pay for the class.

However, in this 'me, me, me' generation, I get some people asking if they get paid to take the class. So far my position has been - I'm paying for the class, that should be enough.

Do you folks have a similar philosophy? Or do you pay them to sit in class?

[diginahole]

I have only done this a handful of times so far, but I pay them for the time that they are in class as well as paying for the class. I think it is a good investment and knock wood I haven't been burned yet by the employee leaving soon after the class is completed.

BTW, I have sent 3 guys for truck driver classes including air brake endorsement and driver training (nearly $800 each) and one those guys to a build a pond day. The driver training always gets me nervous because there are far easier jobs than scaping where drivers can make the same kind of money.

[Bexter]

I feel you should also pay for the time they sit in the classrooom.

[Stonehenge]

Shucks! Do you pay drive time, to and from class?

[Bexter]

After thinking about this for a minute ....it would depend. If a guy is going to community college for the entire winter then no of course not .... I'm talking about 1-2 day courses that would definitely benefit your company.

I'll let you off on the drive time. LOL

[Stonehenge]

LOL. Whew! Thanks.

The classes I'm thinking of tend to last about 8 weeks, one night per week, 3 hours per class. We have a technical college in town that really offers a lot of nice winter programs to hone one's skills.

[Bexter]

If I weren’t missing my regular 8-hr day winter pay then I would very much appreciate your offer to pay for the night course and not expect an hourly wage while I was there.

[Lanelle]

The seminar classes that I help with are held as day-long sessions. I am fairly certain that since this activity takes the place of a regular day, the employers pay as though it was a regular day. Night courses are different I think. Then, the employer pays for the course but does not pay wages. The gas/fuel issue is up for debate. But driving a company vehicle solves that.

[Stonehenge]

I would probably expect that, too. If I sent someone to a daytime event when they would normally be working, I think I would expect to pay them for that.

Thanks for the input, everybody.

[scapepro]

when I used to work for another company they paid for classes for me like pesticide application.

just trying to help.