Shawn, I'm afraid I need to interject something here.
I sense your frustration. You want to advance in your
career, and to do that, you need to take classes and
show that you are working on your continuing
education. Your resources are limited (time, money),
and your constraints are substantial (family, time,
resourcefulness). Truly, I can empathize with your
plight.
But this is, after all, a question of choices. You
chose to go into a museums career, one that requires
ongoing coursework to advance. You are choosing to
want to advance your career. You chose to have a
family. You chose to accept the job that you took.
I don't know who paid for your college education,
whether that was scholarship, family paid, or
something you struggled to pay for on your own.
You're frustrated because your employer chooses not to
pay for some of your continuing ed/training. I'm not
so sure it's a question of they chose to but rather
they simply cannot afford to. And now the onus is on
you to figure out how to pay for it.
Let's add to this that you are choosing to go to Tahoe
as well, presumably for vacation.
I don't, in anyway, want to be condescending, but
whose responsibility is it ultimately to pay for your
education to further your career? Isn't it yours as
an adult? I recognize that many corporations and may
employers MAY choose to pay for their employees'
advancement, and then they choose to write that
expense off on their business as a part of business
expense and presumably a tax writeoff, at least in
some fashion.
The government has some incentive for you to pay for
your education IF you don't make over a certain amount
of money. I believe that sum is $50,000 because I was
chagrined a few years ago to learn I couldn't write
off the money I paid that year toward continuing
education on my taxes. I was over the maximum
earnable salary.
Through the years, I've known some very successful
women who advanced in their careers, but who had no
children. They may or may not have been married, but
oft times they either never had children, or their
children were grown before they advanced. They chose
to go without a family in order to further their
careers. It was a life choice.
I know it's tough to juggle, and I suspect you truly
want to succeed, but, if you do, you're going to have
to bite the bullet and make some tough decisions.
Maybe, in order to advance your career, you'll have to
forgo a vacation this year or some other discretionary
item. Maybe you'll have to find a way to supplement
your income stream.
But really, your education is YOUR responsibility if
you want to advance and, if you choose not to pay for
it, then you're choosing not to advance. It isn't
that someone other than you is obstructing you. It's
one of those cake and eat it too kinds of things. You
can't have it both ways.
I'm not speaking to you as one who doesn't understand.
I understand all too well. I raised my kids and went
without child support (not by choice) and had to forgo
education for a while because I couldn't afford it.
When my employer made educational assistance available
(rather generous actually) but would control what I
took and not allow me to take those things I wanted
that would send me in the direction I wanted to take
for my own life, I chose NOT to apply for educational
assistance and to tough it out on my own. The first
time out the chute, I couldn't even afford the
textbook for half a semester, but damn if I didn't
take EXCELLENT notes, which wound up being quite in
demand.
Like you, I had a family. So I looked at everybody
else's needs and schedules and picked the one night
that would least impact us all. My kids were involved
in sports at the time, and I found that Tuesday nights
worked very well for me. They didn't have games that
would conflict. I could have taken Monday classes,
too, but that would have been hellacious (Mondays are
hard enough as it is). So I planned carefully and
chose what would work with my constraints.
Sometimes I get chided because I try to hold myself to
a higher ethical standard. I feel pretty strongly
about my education and, beyond the control issues, I
wouldn't let my employer pay for my education because,
after all, it was MY responsibility to make sure I was
trained and prepared for the job, not my employer's.
It's great that they may have wanted to pay for it,
but the responsibility was my own. Besides, when
grade time came, I and I alone owned those As and
nobody else.
Only once did I ask my employer to pay for something.
All appraisals have some good and some bad. There was
a class I wanted to take--Dale Carnegie
Leadership--that was well beyond my means at the time,
but some of the things they offered were direct hits
on those issues in my performance appraisal. So I
approached my manager--expecting full well to be
denied--that if they would pay for the class, I would
go on my own time and apply the skills I picked up,
thereby creating a win/win for us all. To my
surprise, it was approved. Then, not only did I take
the course, but so did my manager, her husband, and
one of my best friends. It was a win all the way
around.
I know it's no consolation to you in your dilemma.
But maybe it's reframing your thought processes that
you need in order to advance to your highest
potential.
To borrow a trite phrase, there is no free lunch--and,
in most cases, free training. You sometimes have to
go without other things and make hard choices to get
what you want in the long run.
I wish you the best as you struggle through your
choices.
--- Shawn Weisser <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This is true. In order for me to keep my education
> license I do have to
> attend classes for CEUs and I am not reimbursed. I
> do get to claim the
> expense on my taxes each year, however, can the same
> be said of museum
> related workshops that are not required to keep
> one's job? I am not sure if
> anyone can answer this question.
>
> Shawn M. Weisser
=====
Indigo Nights
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