"jack of all trades, master of none".
That statement seems to me a key to the whole issue.
Well, in my last company I started as responsible for maintaining a website, but as the management noticed some other skills I have, only if at a poor level, I got lots and lots of other tasks to solve as well. So what happend, was that my time, which was planned to be used to maintain a huge and fully through dynamic website, was shortened and the part left was filled with other tasks.
Well, so I became also a jack of all trades but master of none.
If one would ask me, I don't prefer nor like it to be that way.
One ends up with plenty of different things to know and to learn, so the one and only way is to get as much knowledge you need to keep the system, so in my case the website, the intranet, including all clients, server, router up and running and to offer support to users. Sounds a bit different from what I've been hired for, right?
And all I wanted, and truly wanted, was to get time to extend my knowledge in all the fields I was acting.
So, to end that monolog, if one would have wanted to motivate me and make me happy, would have been: enroll "jack of all trades but master of none" to courses that help him to improve his skills
In this way one

• gets time to learn
• can learn quicker than in a self study
• will learn with choosable focus, eg. maintaining network security utilizing perl
• etc.

And I truly believe, that if an employer sends me to a course, spending money and time on improving my skills that is alike a gratification to me but helps me to take the time I need to learn, whereas normally I would fear to spend my working time with learning, even if needed, but that issue "learn and keep up with the tsate of art" in your working time might put your job at risk, because of all the important things that have to be done.
Have a nice day
All decision is left to your taste