5 ms·

7:30 meetings are horrifying to me also, do 1-1s need to be weekly? what about biweekly? i only have a few direct reports and even then i feel weekly is too of

by bllguo 5y ago

7:30 meetings are horrifying to me also, do 1-1s need to be weekly? what about biweekly? i only have a few direct reports and even then i feel weekly is too often

jshen 5y ago
There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. It’s certainly fine to do them less often if you aren’t finding enough value in doing it weekly. Most of these rules of thumb came about before tools like slack, which for better or worse, let you communicate more directly more frequently.
- pseudalopex 5y ago
  Many companies had instant messaging systems before regular 1 on 1 meetings. Email too.
  - jshen 5y ago
    A lot of the ideas and heuristics for one-on-ones came from “high output management” which was published in 1983. I’ve been doing this tech stuff a long time. Companies I worked at started doing regular 1 on 1s before regular use of instant messaging. More importantly, the heuristics most use for 1 on 1s clearly came before use of instant messaging and digital collaboration tools.
ng12 5y ago
I do biweekly. It's my job to keep myself appraised of what reports are working on and make sure they are unblocked. A 1:1 should be focused on long-term career goals and relationship building which can be done biweekly. The obvious exceptions are new hires and very junior engineers who need more handholding while they ramp up.
Traster 5y ago
Yeah this is what struck me, the fact that the 1:1s were so out of sync with the standups. Realistically this manager is probably making the same mistake most managers initially make, which is failing to manage up, and failing to take a role strategically shaping the company. Mostly, the 30 minutes "So what are all the things you've stored up to talk to me about" conversations aren't that valuable, the more free-form broader conversations are. Especially in covid.
jldugger 5y ago
> i only have a few direct reports and even then i feel weekly is too often 1-1s aren't about how _you_ feel. They're about your directs's feelings, and the relationship between the two of you.
- davidw 5y ago
  1-1's are a cargo cult thing that someone decided was a Good Management Idea.
  - kragen 5y ago
    1-1s have been the basis of most human relationships for millions of years.
    - davidw 5y ago
      Real ones, though, which makes the checkbox corporate ones feel that much more fake, because we all know what the real thing is like.
      - jldugger 5y ago
        Well, let's put it like this: the wrong reason for a manager to cut a 1:1 to biweekly is because they don't have enough time in their calendar to support their directs. A better reason would be because there isn't enough time between 1:1s to fill out the weekly meetings. But the manager isn't the person who can easily make that judgement call. IMO, the correct person to judge that is the direct -- they can't just show up at their managers desk and demand a 30 minute meeting when something important shows up, whereas a manager can (and often does!)
        davidw 5y ago
        1 on 1's did not use to be 'a thing', and we still got plenty done in those days, which were not that long ago. Generally ideas like this seem to spread because it was part of some successful company and so it got written up and now a lot of people copy it because it's easy to copy and they think it will help make their own company successful. As a result, the thing that actually occurs in a lot of places is a manager reading from a script that they've been trained on a little bit from someone else. It does not feel useful to me.
mooreds 5y ago
I think weekly is great! They don't have to go for the full time, but when I was an EM, it was the one time of the week where my attention was fully on the other person. That's great for the employee because they can bring things up and it's great for the EM because if there are any subtle issues (dissatisfaction) it's a chance to catch them early.
dsr_ 5y ago
I have minions who want it to be every two weeks. I have minions who are happier if it is weekly. I have minions who do not want them regularly, but want the option on occasion. These are all simultaneously fine. When I miss one with a weekly regular, nobody frets. When I miss one with a biweekly, I make sure to reschedule if it makes sense. And I always make time ASAP for someone who doesn't usually want that meeting, when they ask for it.
- phpnode 5y ago
  Probably avoid calling people minions if you can. Do you want to come across as someone who manages unimportant simpletons, or do you want to be perceived as someone who manages smart and interesting people? Build up those below you, don't knock them down - everyone wins.
  - icedchai 5y ago
    I found it refreshingly honest. Most of us aren't landing people on Mars or working on a cure for cancer here. Most of us are, infact, relatively unimportant (including the guy managing minions.)
    - phpnode 5y ago
      The people who speak like this in my experience typically use that kind of terminology to highlight their own superiority, not realising that it has the opposite effect.
      - dsr_ 5y ago
        I condensed "people who see me as their boss and/or mentor and/or intermediator with the company" into the humorous and highly inaccurate "minions". Feel free to continue to evaluate my performance on the basis of my word-choice here rather than the actual management process I was describing.
        phpnode 5y ago

by bllguo 5y ago

7:30 meetings are horrifying to me also, do 1-1s need to be weekly? what about biweekly? i only have a few direct reports and even then i feel weekly is too often

jshen 5y ago

There is no one-size-fits-all answer here. It’s certainly fine to do them less often if you aren’t finding enough value in doing it weekly. Most of these rules of thumb came about before tools like slack, which for better or worse, let you communicate more directly more frequently.

pseudalopex 5y ago
Many companies had instant messaging systems before regular 1 on 1 meetings. Email too.
- jshen 5y ago
  A lot of the ideas and heuristics for one-on-ones came from “high output management” which was published in 1983. I’ve been doing this tech stuff a long time. Companies I worked at started doing regular 1 on 1s before regular use of instant messaging. More importantly, the heuristics most use for 1 on 1s clearly came before use of instant messaging and digital collaboration tools.

ng12 5y ago

I do biweekly. It's my job to keep myself appraised of what reports are working on and make sure they are unblocked. A 1:1 should be focused on long-term career goals and relationship building which can be done biweekly. The obvious exceptions are new hires and very junior engineers who need more handholding while they ramp up.

Traster 5y ago

Yeah this is what struck me, the fact that the 1:1s were so out of sync with the standups. Realistically this manager is probably making the same mistake most managers initially make, which is failing to manage up, and failing to take a role strategically shaping the company. Mostly, the 30 minutes "So what are all the things you've stored up to talk to me about" conversations aren't that valuable, the more free-form broader conversations are. Especially in covid.

jldugger 5y ago

> i only have a few direct reports and even then i feel weekly is too often 1-1s aren't about how _you_ feel. They're about your directs's feelings, and the relationship between the two of you.

davidw 5y ago
1-1's are a cargo cult thing that someone decided was a Good Management Idea.
- kragen 5y ago
  1-1s have been the basis of most human relationships for millions of years.
  - davidw 5y ago
    Real ones, though, which makes the checkbox corporate ones feel that much more fake, because we all know what the real thing is like.
    - jldugger 5y ago
      Well, let's put it like this: the wrong reason for a manager to cut a 1:1 to biweekly is because they don't have enough time in their calendar to support their directs. A better reason would be because there isn't enough time between 1:1s to fill out the weekly meetings. But the manager isn't the person who can easily make that judgement call. IMO, the correct person to judge that is the direct -- they can't just show up at their managers desk and demand a 30 minute meeting when something important shows up, whereas a manager can (and often does!)
      - davidw 5y ago
        1 on 1's did not use to be 'a thing', and we still got plenty done in those days, which were not that long ago. Generally ideas like this seem to spread because it was part of some successful company and so it got written up and now a lot of people copy it because it's easy to copy and they think it will help make their own company successful. As a result, the thing that actually occurs in a lot of places is a manager reading from a script that they've been trained on a little bit from someone else. It does not feel useful to me.

mooreds 5y ago

I think weekly is great! They don't have to go for the full time, but when I was an EM, it was the one time of the week where my attention was fully on the other person. That's great for the employee because they can bring things up and it's great for the EM because if there are any subtle issues (dissatisfaction) it's a chance to catch them early.

dsr_ 5y ago

I have minions who want it to be every two weeks. I have minions who are happier if it is weekly. I have minions who do not want them regularly, but want the option on occasion. These are all simultaneously fine. When I miss one with a weekly regular, nobody frets. When I miss one with a biweekly, I make sure to reschedule if it makes sense. And I always make time ASAP for someone who doesn't usually want that meeting, when they ask for it.

phpnode 5y ago
Probably avoid calling people minions if you can. Do you want to come across as someone who manages unimportant simpletons, or do you want to be perceived as someone who manages smart and interesting people? Build up those below you, don't knock them down - everyone wins.
- icedchai 5y ago
  I found it refreshingly honest. Most of us aren't landing people on Mars or working on a cure for cancer here. Most of us are, infact, relatively unimportant (including the guy managing minions.)
  - phpnode 5y ago
    The people who speak like this in my experience typically use that kind of terminology to highlight their own superiority, not realising that it has the opposite effect.
    - dsr_ 5y ago
      I condensed "people who see me as their boss and/or mentor and/or intermediator with the company" into the humorous and highly inaccurate "minions". Feel free to continue to evaluate my performance on the basis of my word-choice here rather than the actual management process I was describing.
      - phpnode 5y ago