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1-on-1 meeting questions

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Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#291

Post by fphhotchips »

suls wrote: post #256
skizm wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a bad moment (I don't think at least), and it is good advice to remind myself not to let it affect others around me, but I really do not care about my work, my co-workers, my company, or my career growth. That said, I do all my work on time, with above average quality (I'm pretty sure), communicate well, make sure I am never a blocker, and work to help others who are struggling (we're all stuck here together afte…

Have you ever come across The Gervais Principle? https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-... I first saw it here a couple of months ago. I am sure you will be able to relate to it ;)

That article goes on forever and I can't discern a summary of the principle in a quick flick through. Do you have a tl;Dr?

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#293

Post by zisermann »

Managers and team leads in my company have to make 1-on-1 meeting with their team mates every month on an published calendar schedule. We have made everything possible to help them: learning materials, master-classes, QA sessions, etc. At the beginning, they were anxious that these meetings look like getting into one’s personal zone and they didn’t known what to talk about and how to get rid of embarrassment.

Now they say that they are amazed how much information people are willing to share to find support and solve common problems in work, which managers have no ideas about. I’m one of those who thinks that 1-on-1 meeting is a great tool to make workplace better. Surely, everyone has to understand its goal.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#294

Post by Scea91 »

joejerryronnie wrote: post #266
jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We rig the game when the kids are in school, and brainwash them even further when they get to college. Most of the internships my college promotes are actually illegal, and they keep bringing this recruiter around who keeps trying to tell us that we deserve minimum wage when we get out and that he'll just find someone else if any of us have a problem with that. I guess I should clarify that all of the anti-worker pro…

Your generation is probably the most highly educated in history - so yes, your education is less valuable than at any other time in history (i.e. supply/demand)

You forget that the demand for education has also drastically increased.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#295

Post by tootie »

skizm wrote: post #278
tootie wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is your relationship with your manager tense? Do you not see them regularly through the week? I'm a manager and I spend a lot of one on one time just doing a mini version of couch therapy. Just ask how they're doing. Ask some mundane questions about their dog or their vacations. Rapport is as important as anything else. Once you have trust and a high comfort level, you get a lot more openness and honesty. And it goes…

Tense for me, not for them. I see them everyday and I just act how he expects me to act. Throw out the occasional generic negative criticism (communication needs work, too many meetings, estimates need work, etc.) to make it seem like I care and that I'm not a kiss ass, and ultimately just try and not rock the boat or change anything. It's a balancing act to try and be just on the border of friendly and friends. I ne…

Ha, that's classic. It's my one ironclad managerial tactic is to never invite a report with a message "got a minute" or "let's talk" because it always makes their imagination run wild. I always try to be specific because 99% of the time the convo is innocuous. I know it's not easy, but you should try just acting with a bit more confidence. Your boss probably already has a really good idea of your performance and potential and if they haven't said anything negative, it means they probably like you. So try relaxing and feeling good for a bit. The thing that cured my impostor's syndrome wasn't so much that I'm actually great, but more that everyone else is as much of a fraud as I am. I'm now judging other people's careers when I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. It's human nature, so it's more about being comfortable with uncertainty than being certain.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#296

Post by dosethree »

lucideer wrote: post #265
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…

As a current cog in a 100k+ international corp, I could not disagree more with this post. Firstly, did you read the actual list? They're not radical, boat-shaking questions. They're just honest, targeted, practically useful queries. They benefit your manager, and they benefit the machine. I'll frame one of the Qs in the context you've described (cynical cog in faceless machine) to show what I mean: - How can I make y…

I think OP is merely pointing out that in the majority of corporate environments upper management isn't really looking for feedback or how to improve etc. Any thoughts or suggestions for improvements will oftentimes not be shared upward, because of the risk it will be viewed as a criticism and make your manager appear weak.

That doesn't mean it's right. It's just what happens in the wild

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#297

Post by mcv »

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 see it as part of my job to do my part to improve the work environment. That includes identifying and addressing problems when I see them.

The people who should be laid off are the people who create the problems, not the ones who identify the problems and want to fix them. A good employer knows this, and will appreciate people who want to improve the company. If they fire me for speaking up, then good riddance. I'm probably better off somewhere else.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#298

Post by mcv »

kaens wrote: post #110
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…

> Employment is not a boss->servant relationship It is, for the vast majority of employed people. > it's a relationship where both parties gain something. For the vast majority of employed people, what they gain is the ability to continue to afford food and shelter. Most jobs do not afford the economic reality necessary to allow the employee a position of being able to afford to bargain as anything approaching an equ…

> "Most jobs do not afford the economic reality necessary to allow the employee a position of being able to afford to bargain as anything approaching an equal."

And that is a big problem. This means it's not a free market. Power is unevenly divided, and you only operate on the job market at the mercy of the other party. This is bad.

Something is needed to even the playing field and make employers and employees equals in these negotiations, whether that's unionisation, Basic Income, worker protections of some sort, or something else.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#299

Post by mcv »

epicgiga wrote: post #216
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…

Employment is actually, as a matter of law, a boss -> servant relationship.

I'm self-employed, and as such, my work relationship is legally required not to be a boss -> servant relationship. My client is my customer, not my boss.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#300

Post by joejerryronnie »

Scea91 wrote: post #294
joejerryronnie wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your generation is probably the most highly educated in history - so yes, your education is less valuable than at any other time in history (i.e. supply/demand)

You forget that the demand for education has also drastically increased.

True. Most likely, over-education is less valuable now. An undergraduate engineering degree is still highly valuable while a liberal arts masters degree is arguably less valuable than the loans taken out to procure it.
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