[TUHS] 20% time -- did it originate at the Labs?

[Rob Pike via TUHS]

At least in Research, Bell Labs was pretty light on guidance. If they
trusted you to work there, they trusted you to find interesting things to
work on. There were subtle pressures, sure, but the problems swirling
around were so fascinating that there was no shortage of volunteers for the
juicy ones. As long as you delivered, the freedom remained.

The main reason I left the Labs was a change in management resulted in
insistence that I work on things of no interest to me, things that didn't
even align with my skills, and deliver that message to the people reporting
to me. A complete failure to understand what had made the place so
successful.

-rob


On Thu, Nov 20, 2025 at 6:39 AM Marc Donner via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:

> A small data point.  In 1976 HP made 20% time a prominent feature of their
> recruiting pitch for recent grads.
> =====
> mindthegapdialogs.com <https://www.mindthegapdialogs.com>
> north-fork.info <https://www.north-fork.info>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 12:05 PM Clem Cole via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org> wrote:
>
> > I have always been associated with "1 day a week to work on a project of
> > your choice" with HP and Tektronix.  It was encouraged that what you
> worked
> > on during that time might have future benefits (that's how the Magnolia
> > Workstation — later commercialized as the 4404 — was started).  But a key
> > point to remember was that, in both cases, management tended to disregard
> > it in the project schedule — *i.e.*, things were staffed assuming 100%
> > output (sometimes more).  FWIW: I don't think I have ever associated with
> > BL. @Ron: Where have you seen references to that?
> >
> > BTW: Besides the "1 day a week" idea, something else I always think of
> that
> > I greatly miss in every company I've worked at after my Tektronix
> > experience as a young engineer is the idea of an "open stock room."  I'm
> > not sure of HP policies at the time, but it was Tek's.  The idea was if
> you
> > were working a private project (called a G-job) on your own time, you
> could
> > make anything you wanted at your desk or bench, as long as you paid for
> the
> > parts (credit was given as needed), you just took what you needed and
> > signed the sheets of what you grabbed so the stock room folks would know
> > when to reorder.  The other was that as long as your manager knew, you
> > could bring any lab instrument home to use there.
> >
> > On Wed, Nov 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM ron minnich via TUHS <tuhs at tuhs.org>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I read an article recently that claimed HP invented 20% time 8 decades
> > ago.
> > >
> > > I had always associated 20% time with Bell Labs. Can someone clear me
> up?
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> >
>