Comment by ggambetta | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ggambetta | Hacker News Reader

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Whenever I've managed people, I've made a point of scheduling weekly 1:1s; did that even with 12 or so reports, and it did take a significant chunk of time, but it was IMO one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, I could do for them as a manager (and also the one I enjoyed the most about the role).

As other commenters have said, the 1:1 time is the report's time. It's a chunk of time in which I'm entirely and exclusively available to them. I have a set of standard questions I can default to, mostly trying to understand how they're feeling, and open-ended enough that they can talk about whatever they want. Some are done in 5 minutes with a progress report, some take close to an hour in which they sometimes share personal stuff; it's all good from my POV, happy employees are productive employees.

It's absolutely not just about their job/career path. You wouldn't believe what a MASSIVE difference it makes for people just to be heard and have your undivided attention.

I am about 6mo into a job with weekly 1:1s, and am coming from a job that did them every other week. I am always excited for my weekly 1:1.

As a disclaimer, my boss scheduled a weekly 30min 1:1 when I started, but with the caveat that we could make it less often if I found it not useful. He just preferred weekly during the "settling in" phase.

Almost without fail, our 1:1s go over time, totaling between 45min and 1hr. I can't imagine how my boss finds the time, but I so appreciate that he does.

I keep a pinned slack message in our DM, of priority-ordered things to discuss. Often these are things like:

- Something went wrong this week. How did I do? How could I have performed better?

- I noticed something unhealthy with our team, how can we fix it?

- You did something that surprised me as a manager, what was your thought process (this is sometimes critical feedback, sometimes curiousity)

- Is this thing I want to do a good idea?

- Debrief on progress (or lack thereof) on a predefined goal.

- Help me with this stupid HR/Expense report thing

And the list always ends with:

- leave space for <BOSS> to discuss things he wants

This is easily the most valuable growth time of my week. I appreciate my IC time to do an excellent job, but the 1:1s help me pick my head up and think about bigger things.

> As a disclaimer, my boss scheduled a weekly 30min 1:1 when I started, but with the caveat that we could make it less often if I found it not useful

I always preferred managers like this, who are not totally dogmatic about things like weekly meetings - instead doing what works best for each individual.

I don't know but when I was reading your comment I just kept thinking that the weekly 1:1 that you're advocating is being done for your reports is really just being done for yourself.

I'm with the OP that 1:1 every 2 weeks is better.

Is once per two weeks better for you, or also for everyone else? I've noticed that people are pretty wildly different as employees. And that it's a lot easier to ask for fewer 1:1s than to ask for more.

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