10 ms·

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? M

• mcv 7y ago
  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.
• BoorishBears 7y ago
  Some people have already optimized their careers never to work at a place like this. I don't think it's even that hard to avoid.
• divbzero 7y ago
  Agreed with parent to take 1 on 1’s lightly as just an avenue of conversation. If there is an adjustment you’d like to see, try to suggest it constructively and you don’t have to wait for a 1 on 1 to do so. That said, the “big list” here is directed towards managers and, for a manager, picking out one of these questions now and then as a conversation starter could uncover issues or opportunities that you could address early and make someone just a little happier at work.
  • harikb 7y ago
    If my manager asked me all these questions every 1-on-1, I would be always feel unprepared and would shun future 1-1s. Sure one or two, to get the conversation going is ok.
    • nonbirithm 7y ago
      The last thing I'd want is for 1-on-1's to start feeling like open-ended CS interviews where you know the question they just asked is one they pulled from a list verbatim and they just want a good enough answer from you. I'd rather have the meeting feel like a conversation with direction and not a questionnaire.
• koonsolo 7y ago
  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 developers. When I go to my manager, I'm not going in there with "please don't fire me sir, please.", I'm going in there with "Hey, fix your shit or I'll have a new job next week that pays more from day 1, and you will search the next 6 months for my replacement and train that person another 6 months before (s)he's somewhat productive."
  • mvkel 7y ago
    > “I'm going in there with "Hey, fix your shit or I'll have a new job next week that pays more from day 1, and you will search the next 6 months for my replacement and train that person another 6 months before (s)he's somewhat productive."” What a strange, toxic way to look at the world. We’re just people! People who are hopefully working at a company that has a mission they believe in, who are trying to do the best work they can. Sometimes a manager sucks, sometimes the employee sucks, but there’s never a single person to blame, nor is it up to a single person to “figure shit out.” The more people realize that we’re all in this together, the better. And if you’re jaded about thinking in that way, you’re just not at the right company.
  • kaens 7y ago
    > 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 equal. It is not a strange way to look at the world for anyone who has lived for any significant amount of time as a worker in any average job. It is helpless, yes.
    • mcv 7y ago
      > "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.
• VectorLock 7y ago
  I find myself doing those exact kind of 1:1s with my reports and I HATE it. This at least provides, I think, maybe some inspiration on some better questions to ask.
  • jevanish 7y ago
    Why do you think they hate it?
    • VectorLock 7y ago
      I don't know if they hate it, but I know I do.
  • war1025 7y ago
    My one on one conversations with my boss became significantly more productive when we started just going and grabbing a cup of coffee for them. It's a more social setting, which puts you on footing to actually have a conversation. The previous six years to that, my boss would ask the same canned questions and I would give the same canned answers. The whole process would take about three minutes and nothing would be gained by anyone.
    • VectorLock 7y ago
      I'll go take a walk and sometimes have lunch with people, sometimes I get the same canned responses.
      • benhurmarcel 7y ago
        Sounds like they don't trust you. It's the same with my manager. People don't tell him what they really think, because by experience we know it's not going to have a positive impact, and might negatively impact our raises.
  • mytailorisrich 7y ago
    It's perfectly fine to have nothing much to discuss in a monthly 1-to-1. Those meetings are just to set time aside to discuss and to give the opportunity to raise issues or give feedback. The key, though, is to build trust first. If team members do not feel that they can trust their managers then they won't be open. I've found that chatting about random, non-work related, things also helps building trust and rapport. Try to make the 1-to-1 an informal chat, not a formal 'interview'.
• deeteecee 7y ago
  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.
• birdyrooster 7y ago
  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.
  • l0b0 7y ago
    This is basically learned helplessness - the idea that you're powerless to change your own situation for the better. I suspect it happens to most of us, but yes, it's holding humanity back in many ways.
• biztos 7y ago
  I use my weekly 1:1 to brainstorm, sometimes to vent, and to discuss anything on the near horizon that affects my job, my pay, or life in MegaCorp generally. I do not use it to rock the boat. Advice to younger employees: if you want to rock the boat, do it when your manager is not taking notes. :-) (And I have a really good manager, so not assuming any malice anywhere.)
• Beldur 7y ago
  In a study that was done by the guys at Manager-Tools, they found out that a 1o1 every 4 weeks is worse than no 1o1 at all.
  • nickcox 7y ago
    Don't happen to have a link, do you?
• pccole 7y ago
  If you have grievousness with your work environment, as a good employee you should make yourself heard. How you deliver that grievousness to your boss or upper management is on you. If you end up getting fired or let go for doing it in the right manner, maybe it's for the best anyways.
• artsyca 7y ago
  By the way this is how the Communist party operates too
• inopinatus 7y ago
  I call these “waiter questions” and only once I became a manager, discovered how poorly they invite feedback. And as with, “how’s the meal?”, it is basically an invitation to lie, unless there is something so totally egregious that it probably should’ve been raised by interrupt not polling. My 1:1s became much more fruitful with directed, goal-seeking questions, or even a retro format. As others have touched on, frequency matters. Monthly contact isn’t just a little bit distant, it’s enough time for serious issues to fester. Newbie managers would be wise to recognise that they are Brian Epstein, not John Lennon. Enable the talent, don’t boss it,
  • kamaal 7y ago
    >>My 1:1s became much more fruitful with directed, goal-seeking questions, or even a retro format. This is why every role in a company is an individual contributor role to some extent. You must be direct in asking what should you do to go from X to Y, than just merely talking in abstract terms like 'Performance' or 'Hard Work'. The biggest lie ever told in all this is that management must recognize work and talent. If the world of marketing and advertisements has taught us anything at all. No one appreciates, or recognizes anything. A case must be built actively to ensure your case is high up the stack for the bosses to consider.
• artsyca 7y ago
  Love your cynicism bro but you gotta realize that's only the beginning of the realization you still haven't decided which pill you're going to choose
• vidarh 7y ago
  I'm not a people person. For me doing 1-on-1's when I have teams reporting to me are helpful because it's very easy for me to just forget to ask questions about how people are doing. At times I've varied sets of questions to prevent people who'd otherwise not speak up from letting me know what was really happening. Sometimes that has been the difference between losing valuable people and keeping them happy. I don't think anyone should turn it into some sort of lengthy interrogation, but turning it into something that people can't just give the same non-answers to every week or month unless there genuinely is nothing that can be improved on can be useful. I'd see this as a list you can pick from if you're the kind of person who find it hard to just organically elicit genuine feedback from people. A lot of technical managers in particular get very little support in how to grow into management roles; even worse in startups where there often aren't anyone to turn to for support at early stages. Add on some social awkwardness for some of us, and it can be tough. The irony is that for me at least, having a few prepared questions makes me feel less need for them - they're a useful fallback option if I run out of things to talk about, but knowing I have them makes it easier to just talk.
• tikiman163 7y ago
  Did you even read those 1 0n 1 questions? They couldn't be used to identify under performers, they're "geared" towards ensuring your manager is being helpful and that you have what you need. I habitually complain in my 1 on 1s because it gets me what I need. Nobody has ever given me a hard time, and while doing this I went from just another cog, to irreplaceable and pivotal to the companies strategy. I've also been promoted twice in a year while doing this.
• lucideer 7y ago
  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 your days more fulfilling? Translation: - As you're unlikely to get fulfilment from the product of your work or from thinking about our "corporate values", what other aspects of corporate life can we work on to make working here more palatable? (and maybe reduce attrition) I may be going full depressed dystopian cynic here, but surely it's not hard to see the potential for mutual benefit in targetted questions? I mean, the alternative is to quit and find something fulfilling. If that's not an option, the above seems reasonable.
  • dosethree 7y ago
    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
• jshowa3 7y ago
  Sounds like a horrible way to do a 1-on-1. I understand that you may not care and that may work, but the problem with a lot of companies is the lack of communication perpetrated by this. Sometimes this is the only opportunity to really inquire and ask questions about what's going on. And unless you've been solving the same problems and doing the same job for years, you're not really taking advantage of the time and neither is the manager.
• WhyNotHugo 7y ago
  Sounds like a sad place to work at. I always find 1:1 as great chances to push for things that are convenient both for ourselves and for the company as a whole.