I enjoy my 1:1s with my manager. It's pretty relaxed, open ended conversation. Recently she asked us all to just do a summary in OneNote of what we did for the week, so that kind of gives us things to talk about. Typically we talk about personal life, family things for about half of the meeting and work the other half.
How to get the most out of your 1:1s
111–120 of 212 posts
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#112[deleted]
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#113I used to have a boss who’d ask me to rate my company satisfaction with the company 1-10 at every 1:1. This always struck me as one of the laziest/misguided management moves I’ve encountered, and I’m sure he felt it was both accurate and clever. If you manage people, and don’t understand that basic power dynamics will always trump encouragements for “openness”, you are naive at best and willfully blind at worst.
> basic power dynamics
power dynamics vary. some developers can always easily get another job, so they have a lot of power. in a case like that, asking the developer to rate their satisfaction seems normal & good, like a customer satisfaction survey.
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#114I really struggle with 1:1s primarily because:
1. Do you want career growth?
No, and its hard to tell that to my manager. More growth leads to more responsibility, which is more stress. I'm happy where I am and I don't want promotions.
I'm afraid to tell my manager that, because which manager wants an unambitious engineer? There was someone like that on our team and he was laid off in the last layoff round, so I have to "pretend" I'm working towards the next level.
2. Do you want more interesting work?
Also no, I'm perfectly happy maintaining our current codebase, not interested in new and shiny projects because my most interesting time is spent at home with my kiddo.
Any tips on how I can handle my 1:1s?
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, my 1:1s go like that actually. My point is: if you suddenly remove your 1:1s, would the business or you get impacted? In my case the answer is: no. The 1:1s are not terrible nor bad, I just feel that they are just superflous.
As a manager, 1:1s are primarily for you. Not the manager. If you’re getting nothing out of them, suggest changes to cadence and/or frequency. I won’t let my staff ditch them 100% as there’s also a component where I’m using them to spot problems I might not see otherwise. But for the most part, I treat it as their time
As a Doctor, giving my patient a placebo sugar pill once a month is primarily for you. Not the Doctor. I won't let my staff ditch them 100% as there's also a component where I use them to charge their insurance. But for the most part, I treat it as their time.
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#116I really struggle with 1:1s primarily because: 1. Do you want career growth? No, and its hard to tell that to my manager. More growth leads to more responsibility, which is more stress. I'm happy where I am and I don't want promotions. I'm afraid to tell my manager that, because which manager wants an unambitious engineer? There was someone like that on our team and he was laid off in the last layoff round, so I have…
I would be totally fine with someone telling me in a one on one that they are comfortable with their current position and would like to stay there. My expectation at that point would be that we would work on growth within that position. How can we (you and I) do the best job we can maximizing your impact and output where you currently are and make you the best version of what you want to be.
Honestly, any manager who is against that isn't a good manager.
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Seems to me that the job of the engineer manager is just too lightweight. Maybe you don't see other things they do. Their work isn't only 1:1 with you. For instance, hiring, evaluating employees, redirecting team efforts if new priority arises, fostering collaboration with other teams if needed, unblocking things, reporting to high management about the team whereabout, making sure every IC has what they need for th…
> For instance, hiring Yes, they screen CVs and join tech interviews. I also join tech interviews. > evaluating employees True. They use the 1:1s to keep track of the evaluation afaik. > redirecting team efforts if new priority arises As I said, our eng. manager doesn't usually join our planning nor has ever said anything regarding "X has more prio than Y"... Redirecting the team effort is mostly on the team itself (…
Sounds to me like you just have a bad manager.
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#118It's strange how so many informal conversations have become formalized. Phone call? Book a calendar invite. Talk to your manager? Schedule a one-on-one. Want to raise a technical comment? Issue a Jira ticket. Not to say that this is all bad, but wondering if it's really helpful.
Those are all just boxes with a shipping label on it, so that we can force a receipt.
Because we're past a point where if you don't have that shipping label on it, you can just ignore it and say you never got it.
It was inevitable.
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#119I really struggle with 1:1s primarily because: 1. Do you want career growth? No, and its hard to tell that to my manager. More growth leads to more responsibility, which is more stress. I'm happy where I am and I don't want promotions. I'm afraid to tell my manager that, because which manager wants an unambitious engineer? There was someone like that on our team and he was laid off in the last layoff round, so I have…
Couch it in how you want to contribute to your team.
Instead of "I don't want interesting work", say you want to help support members of the team who are looking for new opportunities, or something like that. There's X work maintaining the codebase and Y work on new and shiny projects and Z employees. Suggest perhaps cross-training in other people's less-stressful work (if there is any).
If you say that, then your manager (in their head), can be thinking, "Okay so we have this new project, and songzme doesn't want it, but her coworker does, so if songzme can pick up some of the maintenance work, the coworker will have time for new project." Obviously, keep your total workload under control, but a manager's job is to get a team to do something. It's fine to play support, just be open to it.
It doesn't have to be permanent. I've had time periods when I've volunteered for projects and others when I'm not interested due to external factors. During those times, I just did more of the team's work that required the least 'brain'. Which is great for the team members who are feeling bored and want to try something new.
Re: How to get the most out of your 1:1s
#120I really struggle with 1:1s primarily because: 1. Do you want career growth? No, and its hard to tell that to my manager. More growth leads to more responsibility, which is more stress. I'm happy where I am and I don't want promotions. I'm afraid to tell my manager that, because which manager wants an unambitious engineer? There was someone like that on our team and he was laid off in the last layoff round, so I have…
There’s no problem with that as long as you don’t express it in a negative way.
At least, I manage people who say this and it is perfectly fine.
Also, this level of ambition has a tendency to change with people’s life circumstances.
The most important thing for me is making sure the work someone is doing is aligned with their goals, whether that is work life balance or expanding their role as fast as is feasible or something in between.