I am also among the lucky folks who work for training friendly companies. I went through so many though that i actually looked for a training friendly company in my search and found them. My company sponsors user group meetings and sends its people to the best training there is and am going to PASS again for third year in a row sponsored by them. I have worked for those 'meanies' before, by that i mean those who won't spend even on books/magazines - some of them are worth arguing with, majority in my experience are simply aren't. Training comes from the employer's belief that his employes need to learn/grow/do a better job and lots of them out there just dont care enough, they are fine if you just do the bare minimum or you sweat it out somehow to find the solution. I feel really sorry for those who have to put up with that stuff, personally i just couldn't.