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1-on-1 meeting questions

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Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#301

Post by stared »

lexicality wrote: post #268
stared wrote: post #68

For my taste, "Are you on track to meet the deadline?" is an intense discussion starter, as strong as a punch.

I think that depends entirely on _when_ the question is asked. If you get asked "Are you on track to meet the deadline" 50% of the way through the scheduled time then it should be a) An opportunity to reflect on your progress b) A chance to ask for help if needed Of course, if a shitty manager asks you that 3 hours before the deadline then ha ha ha good luck

Well, it is an important question, when talking with a manager.

But I find it to be of a totally different caliber than "Hey, what’s going on?" or "How are you? How is life outside of work?".

Vide asking "How was your last medical checkup?" in a personal conversation. Well, if it is good or OK-ish, it may be fine. In all other cases, it may turn a conversation into much more emotionally instense and sterssfull.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#302

Post by rtkwe »

smichel17 wrote: post #152
anonred wrote: post #120

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 R…

While making no comment on whether it is ridiculous, I'll point out that steps 1 and 5+ are the same as I'd do to send a PR anywhere, so it's really steps 2, 3, and 4 we're talking about. That is, let's just make sure we're criticising the actions required, not the number of steps involved.

That's only really necessary because of the weird (imo) decision to manage the questions via a nodejs script instead of just having people edit the README. What's the actual benefit to creating these extra steps?

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#303

Post by loco5niner »

notyourday wrote: post #273
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about remote? It's kind of an offshoot of that (quiet place for productivity).

If a company does not have a culture of addressing developers quality of worklife issues (developer: the noises are killing my productivity. manager: well, we aren't changing our office setup to accommodate people who want it to be quiet ) then it is extremely unlikely that the company would allow remote.

Yep, this is exactly my situation. However, I'm seeing signs that part-time remote is going to happen in the next couple of years.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#304

Post by loco5niner »

octodog wrote: post #169
ken wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are fortunate that the problems with modern software shops happen to align with the types of problems you can deal with. For example, there aren't plenty of companies with quiet offices searching for developers. When I tell my manager "The noise in this new open floorplan office is killing my productivity", they say "OK, well, that's not going to change", and then we spend the rest of the hour rearranging deck ch…

Surely there are other options your manager and you can look at that fall between having an open floorplan and not having one. Get them to buy you noise cancelling headphones or something.

Noise cancelling headphones don't work for this type of work and gave me tinnitus (ringing in the ears).

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#305

Post by loco5niner »

koreth1 wrote: post #290
joyeuse6701 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in an open floor plan where managers frequently shout and have long conversations next to me with each other. I use a mix of brain.fm (or similar white noise) and apple AirPods pro. As a combination, they work surprisingly well at blocking out enough noise to let me remain focused on whatever problem. They are indispensable to me now.

Just be conscious of the effect long-term exposure to constant loud noise can have on your hearing, even if you're able to concentrate. Drowning out loud sound with louder sound is not particularly good for your ears.

Agreed. I'm dealing with hearing issues from exactly this type of situation.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#306

Post by loco5niner »

samdoidge wrote: post #258
dehrmann wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You offer a service, and they pay for that. No, the company pays for that. A manager's job is to help ICs be effective and to help the company make the most of ICs' work. My first manager told me something really good: don't look at it as a boss telling people what to do. ICs manage code, the manager manages people.

IC = ?

Individual Cog.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#307

Post by klondike_klive »

koreth1 wrote: post #290
joyeuse6701 wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in an open floor plan where managers frequently shout and have long conversations next to me with each other. I use a mix of brain.fm (or similar white noise) and apple AirPods pro. As a combination, they work surprisingly well at blocking out enough noise to let me remain focused on whatever problem. They are indispensable to me now.

Just be conscious of the effect long-term exposure to constant loud noise can have on your hearing, even if you're able to concentrate. Drowning out loud sound with louder sound is not particularly good for your ears.

mynoise.net does a pretty good "busy cafe/restaurant" noise generator with burbling unintelligible voices that drown out conversations. I used it extensively when directing an animation series where the production staff insisted on having Heart FM playing loudly the whole day.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#308

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

abraxas wrote: post #179
octodog wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely there are other options your manager and you can look at that fall between having an open floorplan and not having one. Get them to buy you noise cancelling headphones or something.

Visual noise is as bad as audible noise. What's next, horse blinders?

That's actually been done already: https://www.dezeen.com/2018/10/17/panasonics-wearable-blinke...

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#309

Post by lexicality »

stared wrote: post #301
lexicality wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that depends entirely on _when_ the question is asked. If you get asked "Are you on track to meet the deadline" 50% of the way through the scheduled time then it should be a) An opportunity to reflect on your progress b) A chance to ask for help if needed Of course, if a shitty manager asks you that 3 hours before the deadline then ha ha ha good luck

Well, it is an important question, when talking with a manager. But I find it to be of a totally different caliber than "Hey, what’s going on?" or "How are you? How is life outside of work?". Vide asking "How was your last medical checkup?" in a personal conversation. Well, if it is good or OK-ish, it may be fine. In all other cases, it may turn a conversation into much more emotionally instense and sterssfull.

I honestly think that is a reflection of the kind of management your company promotes.

In previous places I've worked, "are you on schedule?" would be an implicit attack - but in my current workplace checking in on people and making sure they're not silently struggling is a regular and casual thing.

Re: 1-on-1 meeting questions

#310

Post by WhyNotHugo »

karatestomp wrote: post #112
jstummbillig wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This really depends on where you're living. I'd guess that in very few countries firing an employee has no consequence for the employer. Generally, there's an actual financial cost in firing (compensation), plus the loss generated by the lack of manpower later, and the money lost on-boarding a replacement.
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