[dfritz]

That's the same in most companies. But when they say "go build something", it really means "go build something at home, not during your working time!". In my career, the most interesting things I worked on were mostly done on my spare time. Then, I left the company and lost the right to use my own code. Retrospectively, I'd have rather spent this time on my own projects.

[judk]

Not true. In most companies, your novel ideas are not welcome, even if you build them on unpaid overtime. They aren't part of the Plan.