Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

1-on-1 meeting questions

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 313 posts

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#111

Post by scarface74 »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #50
scarface74 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is always a power imbalance between a subordinate and a manager. There is no “genuine trust” with a manager. If your manager was told that their were imminent layoffs and they were told not to tell you, do you think they would? Would you tell your manager that you are hoping to learn all you can to get a better paying job in a year?

Of course there is no trust, and this lack of trust is pouring from all these questions. Personally I encourage the people who report to me to always come to me with any issues they may have and never wait until a 1 on 1.

You can’t come to your manager at anytime when you have an issue. It’s not always because of lack of trust. They are busy managing. I sometimes need to schedule a meeting with my manager to go over a technical proposal and his schedule is busy all day with meetings. That’s not meant to be negative.

Also, I’m at a level now that I need to come to a manager with both problems and proposed solutions.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#112

Post by karatestomp »

jstummbillig wrote: post #98
koonsolo wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a strange, helpless way to look at the world. Employment is not a boss->servant relationship, it's a relationship where both parties gain something. You offer a service, and they pay for that. End of story. They act out? Then you find someone else who needs your services. As a programmer myself, I'm in this great position where there is a shortage of good developers, and plenty of companies searching for good de…

It's a realistic depiction of how this thing works (albeit for different reasons than the opposite of what you imply). The issue is that employees, in general, are much, much worse at the employment game than their respective employer. This makes a lot of sense: Your employers job, after reaching some level, is to employ the right people (and even beyond that to hire the right people to hire the right people). That's…

It’s also, generally, much more harmful for an employee to lose or be passed over for a job than for an employer to fire someone or pass over an applicant. Most employers, if a single position goes unfilled for six months it may be annoying and even costly but they’ll be basically fine. Employee out of work for six months? Very different story.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#113

Post by A_No_Name_Mouse »

yankit wrote: post #107
A_No_Name_Mouse wrote: post #102

Am I the only one who scrolled down the whole list looking for the questions and issues you can bring up as a coworker? On the 1-on-1's I have with my manager I determine most of the agenda because I know where the gears need lubrication. How would she know if I don't tell her? I'm a professional and I don't need a boss who tells me what to do or how to do it: that part I'll find out by myself. But my manager needs t…

How do you make sure you do your best work without proper feedback?

Not sure I understand your question. I will tell my manager what I'm doing. If she likes me to do different things (or the same things differently) the 1-on-1's are the best moment to talk about that. That's how I get feedback.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#114

Post by VectorLock »

skizm wrote: post #61

As a grunt IC 1 on 1s are a nightmare for me. I never know what to talk about. All current project stuff is hashed out in or after scrum. Career development is more of a once per year thing (at least not weekly). If I had a problem with any of my team members I would have brought it up by now (assuming I thought others felt that way, I don't want to be the only one to bring it up or I'll be seen as the problem). For…

I appreciate the "You need code, I need to eat" mentality but I don't think managers/managed need to treat each other with a total cold clinical demeanor. You might just be there to work, but treating each other like people makes you hate going into work just a little bit less.

People might not want to be too close to people in case they need to get rid of them. I think being a good coach means loving your team but still being strong enough to make the hard decisions. At least it lets you make those hard decisions from a place of humanity.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#115

Post by deeteecee »

RotaryTelephone wrote: post #63

My 1on1's at a 100k+ international corporation always went like this: Manager: so how's it going? Me: great Manager: any issues? anything you want to discuss? Me: everything is fantastic! I'm very happy with my job :D Manager: cool cool... well let's do this again next month. Me: yay! I don't want someone in a similar situation like I was to get inspired by lists like these and go into their next 1on1 wrecking havoc…

I really see that big list as just ideas to think about. I don't think just because it's there, the person is going to wreak havoc. (But it is a good point to say "hey, there's these questions here. Don't go nuts thinking you SHOULD ask all these questions")

In my case, everything could be good with the manager but I just bring up interesting topics for me to learn more from the manager.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#116

Post by djsumdog »

koonsolo wrote: post #73
RotaryTelephone wrote: post #63

My 1on1's at a 100k+ international corporation always went like this: Manager: so how's it going? Me: great Manager: any issues? anything you want to discuss? Me: everything is fantastic! I'm very happy with my job :D Manager: cool cool... well let's do this again next month. Me: yay! I don't want someone in a similar situation like I was to get inspired by lists like these and go into their next 1on1 wrecking havoc…

What a strange, helpless way to look at the world. Employment is not a boss->servant relationship, it's a relationship where both parties gain something. You offer a service, and they pay for that. End of story. They act out? Then you find someone else who needs your services. As a programmer myself, I'm in this great position where there is a shortage of good developers, and plenty of companies searching for good de…

Only in high end fields: tech, finance, engineering. Even then, it really just depends. I've worked at a lot of companies (I have terrible job loyalty) and I see what's good and healthy and what's not. I've only lost two jobs and both of them were places where people were expected to work 70+ hours a week. I could get let go and be fine, because I'm an in-demand engineer with lots of experience. But I'm in a very unique position; one most people are not in.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#117

Post by betaby »

We have mandatory 1:1 and yes, questions are similar. I found them useless and not productive at all. Most hypocritical ones are about carrier development. Let's say 1:10 ration of the managers and deportees, not matter how you 'develop' there is simply no place for promotion. Technical track is rather rare outside of FAANG.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#118

Post by KingOfCoders »

lonelappde wrote: post #71
mattrp wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Walks n talks are great but they aren’t 1:1’s in the way the author is envisioning them. The difference is a walk n talk is something you do when you have unscheduled free time and want to sidestep email for a direct conversation. A 1:1 is More like a weekly postmortem.. you celebrate wins, you figure out how to not repeat mistakes. But from a manager’s perspective, a 1:1 is all about ego management. For example, if…

Gp's "walk and talk" just mea s having a meeting while walking outsit instead of sitting down. it's good for casualness and rapport but terrible for organizing thoughts and remembering what to follow-up on.

Yes. I'd often have at least once per month the weekly 1on1 in the office. Also depends on people, some are ok with broad development, some feel better with action items and todos to follow up on.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#119

Post by birdyrooster »

RotaryTelephone wrote: post #63

My 1on1's at a 100k+ international corporation always went like this: Manager: so how's it going? Me: great Manager: any issues? anything you want to discuss? Me: everything is fantastic! I'm very happy with my job :D Manager: cool cool... well let's do this again next month. Me: yay! I don't want someone in a similar situation like I was to get inspired by lists like these and go into their next 1on1 wrecking havoc…

If you are going to get smarmy with “Understand where you work before opening your mouth, people ;)”

Then I’ll be blunt with you too. You are a coward and hold our industry back.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#120

Post by anonred »

Questions aside, I honestly thought the steps to submit a new question was satire...

  Contributing
  1. Fork it
  2. Run npm install
  3. Add your resource to questions.json
  4. Run node index to update README.md with your changes
  5. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
  6. Commit your changes (git commit -am "Add some feature")
  7. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
  8. Create new Pull Request
https://github.com/VGraupera/1on1-questions#contributing
Post reply on HN