Ask HN: 1-on-1s in the Workplace
1. Do you have 1-on-1s at your work/team?
2. Do you feel they are beneficial?
3. If so, frequency of 1-on-1s?
2. Do you feel they are beneficial?
3. If so, frequency of 1-on-1s?
2. Yes. Though like anything, you get out of them what you put in.
3. Set on a per-person basis. Some people need/want to meet every week. A lot of them are younger developers and are looking for constant guidance/feedback on how they're doing, ways to improve, or just to talk through issues.
While a person is in charge of their frequency, we do require at least once a month. Those people are usually more senior in their careers. In those cases, a lot of times the meetings are shorter and we just have a quick chat to make sure everything's okay with both them and their team.
2. YES! Very much so!
3. A 1 hour meeting every other week! If you want to have weekly 1-on-1s, you can have a 30-45 minute meeting.
A few tips:
- Focus of 1-on-1s should be on supporting your direct reports. How they feel at work, how they can achieve more, what should they do for their career developments, etc.
- Active listening is very important! It's a meeting about our direct reports goals, so most of the time we should listen to what they have to say.
- I found this guide by Lighthouse helpful, but there are lots of other good guides:
https://getlighthouse.com/blog/one-on-one-meetings-template-...
My direct report is our product manager, and has his schedule packed with meetings. Keeping a 1on1 on the calendar means I can nab him with questions during a busy week without sending another fifteen emails to an already overflowing inbox. Plus, it makes us both pick our heads up at least once a week to socially engage, which we could both easily forget to do.
Usually our 1 on 1s turn into a planning session to discuss project that will be coming the following months. So I do feel they are useful.
2. Not really.
3. They are weekly.
I just don't have much to say most times, so it's a quick "everything good?", "yep", "cool".