4 ms·

Not speaking with your subordinates at least once a week is a pretty solid indication of a shitty manager...

MattGaiser 6y ago
More just a consequence of an project that is generally going well (or at least was) and a lot of prior autonomy. Plenty of weeks there has been nothing to say. We had a sprint planning (he isn’t on the development team for that), we completed the sprint, we did it again. Nothing to report. In the office, it is a nice amount of autonomy to not have to provide yet another status update all the time. The project team already has enough Scrum reporting requirements so it works well to keep the admin burden down. You just have to wonder if you are forgotten when working remotely.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- jeffasinger 6y ago
  A good manager should be doing a lot more than just asking you for status updates in your 1:1s. At a minimum they should be: 1) Providing updates on things going on with the rest of the organization that may affect you. Technically this doesn't have be in a 1:1, but is often a good venue. 2) Learning more about any problems facing the team, and discussing potential solutions. 3) Giving feedback on both what the employee has been doing well and any areas they could improve. 4) Helping to set goals that will advance the employees career goals. While you might be able to get everything done well with lots of autonomy, you're probably still leaving value on the table by not meeting more regularly.
  - MattGaiser 6y ago
    That is interesting as I never would have thought those would be in the scope of what managers did (especially the career goals as that means helping people leave). I was under the impression that the less your manager needs to deal with you, the better you are doing. > you're probably still leaving value on the table by not meeting more regularly. Am definitely going to think about this over the next little while. Thanks.
    - AlisdairO 6y ago
      Yeah, to add to this: the best year of my working life, I got an average review. I just happened to be an expert in a bunch of tech that my team had forced on them, ramped them all up, and generally contributed a bunch. And I failed to communicate with my manager - as in, I went three months without meeting him. He had no real idea how much I'd contributed. Now obviously, that's on my manager as well, but ultimately it was me it affected. Since then I've made an effort to own the communication with my manager more, and it's had much better results career-wise.
    - golover721 6y ago
      Ultimately a manager is judged by his/her superiors by their ability to get the most value out of the teams which they are in charge of. So as a report, frequent communication with your manager discussing whats going well, what can be improved, and ideas on how to do it helps them meet their goals as well as making your life easier. It also is likely a primary factor that will help you with your career progression. From what I have seen over the years theres the top performers who communicate a lot with the manager in the way described above. Also bottom performers communicate frequently with their manager, but for negative reasons. The middle performers often hardly communicate with the manager, and they are likely not going anywhere (which is fine too, if thats what they want).
    - woeirua 6y ago
      At the end of the day, a good manager wants to see their reports progress professionally and personally. They should be helping you get to the next level, regardless of what that is for you. Sometimes that means saying goodbye to really talented employees, knowing that they're moving on to bigger and better things than you can provide for them.
watwut 6y ago
Depends how many people work in the team. But really, most of time you dont need to work with manager and frequent communication typically means the manager is dealing with some problem with you or near you.
binarymax 6y ago
Calling your employees "subordinates" is also a solid indication of the same.
- Aeolun 6y ago
  How would you then call people below you in the org tree? I’m struggling to think of a clearer term.
  - newtoday 6y ago
    Team members?
  - exolymph 6y ago
    "Direct reports" is the default euphemism.
  - dagnabbit 6y ago
    'my org', 'my team' or 'my reports' for all below; 'my direct reports' for those immediately below.
  - artificial 6y ago
    Child processes, managed processes, automatons, acolytes, minions... villagers? No, too RTS ;)
    - winkeltripel 6y ago
      units?
      - artificial 6y ago
        Heck yeah, I like it. I always associate that with C&C: Red Alert.
  - jes 6y ago
    With no snark intended, I simply call them my colleagues. If there is a question about whether they report to me or not, I'm happy to clarify.
markkanof 6y ago
I think some of the replies to your comment and surrounding comments are missing an important point, which I'm going to assume you were making. In a remote work situation, managers need to check in for more than just directly work related conversations. The comment that started this thread was making the claim that people have difficulty comprehending others as people that they don't directly see in person. So managers (everyone really) should be checking in at least once a day, even if it's just to ask "how's it going" (generally, not a work status report), have a conversation about something non-work related, crack some jokes, whatever. Basically, maintaining that human connection sometimes needs to be forced a little bit, because it's so important and leads to a tighter knit team.
krzyk 6y ago
It depends. I don't want to speak to my manager to often, I prefer to do my work without distractions. And I must say I'm loving this whole pandemic forced WFH on everyone - it means all of us are on the same level, no more speaking with managers/directors over a cigarette or at lunch/coffee. A great equalizer of opportunities and pure work :)

More just a consequence of an project that is generally going well (or at least was) and a lot of prior autonomy. Plenty of weeks there has been nothing to say. We had a sprint planning (he isn’t on the development team for that), we completed the sprint, we did it again. Nothing to report. In the office, it is a nice amount of autonomy to not have to provide yet another status update all the time. The project team already has enough Scrum reporting requirements so it works well to keep the admin burden down. You just have to wonder if you are forgotten when working remotely.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jeffasinger 6y ago
A good manager should be doing a lot more than just asking you for status updates in your 1:1s. At a minimum they should be: 1) Providing updates on things going on with the rest of the organization that may affect you. Technically this doesn't have be in a 1:1, but is often a good venue. 2) Learning more about any problems facing the team, and discussing potential solutions. 3) Giving feedback on both what the employee has been doing well and any areas they could improve. 4) Helping to set goals that will advance the employees career goals. While you might be able to get everything done well with lots of autonomy, you're probably still leaving value on the table by not meeting more regularly.
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  That is interesting as I never would have thought those would be in the scope of what managers did (especially the career goals as that means helping people leave). I was under the impression that the less your manager needs to deal with you, the better you are doing. > you're probably still leaving value on the table by not meeting more regularly. Am definitely going to think about this over the next little while. Thanks.
  - AlisdairO 6y ago
    Yeah, to add to this: the best year of my working life, I got an average review. I just happened to be an expert in a bunch of tech that my team had forced on them, ramped them all up, and generally contributed a bunch. And I failed to communicate with my manager - as in, I went three months without meeting him. He had no real idea how much I'd contributed. Now obviously, that's on my manager as well, but ultimately it was me it affected. Since then I've made an effort to own the communication with my manager more, and it's had much better results career-wise.
  - golover721 6y ago
    Ultimately a manager is judged by his/her superiors by their ability to get the most value out of the teams which they are in charge of. So as a report, frequent communication with your manager discussing whats going well, what can be improved, and ideas on how to do it helps them meet their goals as well as making your life easier. It also is likely a primary factor that will help you with your career progression. From what I have seen over the years theres the top performers who communicate a lot with the manager in the way described above. Also bottom performers communicate frequently with their manager, but for negative reasons. The middle performers often hardly communicate with the manager, and they are likely not going anywhere (which is fine too, if thats what they want).
  - woeirua 6y ago
    At the end of the day, a good manager wants to see their reports progress professionally and personally. They should be helping you get to the next level, regardless of what that is for you. Sometimes that means saying goodbye to really talented employees, knowing that they're moving on to bigger and better things than you can provide for them.

watwut 6y ago

Depends how many people work in the team. But really, most of time you dont need to work with manager and frequent communication typically means the manager is dealing with some problem with you or near you.

binarymax 6y ago

Calling your employees "subordinates" is also a solid indication of the same.

Aeolun 6y ago
How would you then call people below you in the org tree? I’m struggling to think of a clearer term.
- newtoday 6y ago
  Team members?
- exolymph 6y ago
  "Direct reports" is the default euphemism.
- dagnabbit 6y ago
  'my org', 'my team' or 'my reports' for all below; 'my direct reports' for those immediately below.
- artificial 6y ago
  Child processes, managed processes, automatons, acolytes, minions... villagers? No, too RTS ;)
  - winkeltripel 6y ago
    units?
    - artificial 6y ago
      Heck yeah, I like it. I always associate that with C&C: Red Alert.
- jes 6y ago
  With no snark intended, I simply call them my colleagues. If there is a question about whether they report to me or not, I'm happy to clarify.

markkanof 6y ago

I think some of the replies to your comment and surrounding comments are missing an important point, which I'm going to assume you were making. In a remote work situation, managers need to check in for more than just directly work related conversations. The comment that started this thread was making the claim that people have difficulty comprehending others as people that they don't directly see in person. So managers (everyone really) should be checking in at least once a day, even if it's just to ask "how's it going" (generally, not a work status report), have a conversation about something non-work related, crack some jokes, whatever. Basically, maintaining that human connection sometimes needs to be forced a little bit, because it's so important and leads to a tighter knit team.

krzyk 6y ago

It depends. I don't want to speak to my manager to often, I prefer to do my work without distractions. And I must say I'm loving this whole pandemic forced WFH on everyone - it means all of us are on the same level, no more speaking with managers/directors over a cigarette or at lunch/coffee. A great equalizer of opportunities and pure work :)