There's a style of management I encounter still that is very unsupportive of it's employees. Untrusting, thinking they're always out to leave just to make more money. It's interesting because the engineers I know tend to be pretty altruistic people and I won't say they don't care about money but it's not their leading factor in employment (I definitely know the other spectrum as well so don't think I'm ignoring that).
I've worked at places specifically didn't want to send employees to conferences because they think everyone uses them as farming tools (whether that's true or not, some engineers just want to go learn and it's pretty upsetting if you have a SME in some subject and don't allow them to attend a con while plenty of other $leaders go).
I've also worked for tech places where a boss would come in and fire you on Monday then call you up and offer you $1k to return on Tuesday, me being about 21 at my first sysadmin job kept me around for that abuse.
It's really, really not a good feeling to feel untrusted or like you're constantly being tested by your employer.
Hah. Seems like this is not as uncommon as I thought. My senior had her convention request denied by company while multiple leadership folk were flown over there. She got pissed and paid for her own access/flight. She clearly met a lot of people there. Maybe that is what management is most scared of. She already almost left once.
It's very common if you're not at some big FAANG or group that is in all the partner groups (CNCF, etc) and pays to get tickets every year.
I do this a lot for a few foss projects I contribute to because even though I'm always hired as the SME for my niche leadership will only give me tickets/flights to conferences if they have extras and none of their drinking buddies want to go. Typically what happens is I'll start at a company, ask about going to $mybigcon when a training budget is brought up, that training budget is always slashed, not real or goes somewhere else then I'll never ask again and I'll find my own way to get tickets (from conf partners, etc).
The funny thing, when I have to do this not only am I really bothered that my company wouldn't spend the $1000 ($200 plane, $800 ticket) but I go out of my way to not focus on ANYTHING that will benefit my company but instead I have a good time and learn things I'm interested in and mingle with every other company/partner I can.
I've actually had companies expect me to get tickets myself from the projects or from gold partners that I know. I don't have that much clout by any means and even asking partners for tickets makes me feel terrible because they're limited too.
I've worked at places specifically didn't want to send employees to conferences because they think everyone uses them as farming tools (whether that's true or not, some engineers just want to go learn and it's pretty upsetting if you have a SME in some subject and don't allow them to attend a con while plenty of other $leaders go).
I've also worked for tech places where a boss would come in and fire you on Monday then call you up and offer you $1k to return on Tuesday, me being about 21 at my first sysadmin job kept me around for that abuse.
It's really, really not a good feeling to feel untrusted or like you're constantly being tested by your employer.