Have you ever felt pressured to attend, been explicitly told, or somehow made to feel that attending a professional development workshop run by a company that is not your employer, is a requirement of your job?

EDIT – clarifications:

-example of the type of workshop: the “self-help” style workshops run by companies like Landmark

-the workshops were not technically a part of the job description or a part of your employers official training; but you were pushed 'off the record' to attend and made to feel that it was necessary for you attend if you wished to keep your job or be eligible for any type of advancement in the company

-you had to pay for the first workshop yourself, however the company gave a 100% reimbursement to you for that first workshop. the reimbursement is not immediate however, it will come in after a certain amount of time (could have been weeks or months)

-with that said, you were pushed to attend more workshops from the same outside company via the same 'off the record' methods, but any workshop except for the first one, was not reimbursed by the company

-you were made to attend these workshops on your days off