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Comment by a3camero | Hacker News Reader

Sounds a bit abrasive to do this: "You ask, “Are you bored?” Even if you don’t have a gut feeling, it’s a good question to randomly ask your team. When I ask, I look you straight in the eyes and if you can’t stare me in the face and answer, I’m going to keep digging until you look me in the eye."

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Not at all. In fact you should always wait until eye contact. I can't count the number of times I wish I had stared down a boss to make him/her understand that I was drowning in boredom only instead to give a quick smile and nod while continuing to look at my monitor.

It is way to easy to do "manager drive-by" and get absolutely no sense of reality from employees.

This is on both sides to get right. The manager waiting, and the employee taking the time to "look them in the eye".

some people (such as myself) have a really hard time with eye contact. it doesn't mean i'm not earnest in what i'm saying, it just means that eye contact makes me very uncomfortable.

i've learned that a lot of people see it as important, so i do an exercise when i walk to work, making eye contact with as many people as i can. it's helping but it's still hard for me - i feel like i'm being intrusive and slightly aggressive by making eye contact with someone.

Especially if you're questioning them with very short direct questions that are relevant to their job (that may be important to them...) and then not letting it slide by dogging them until they answer. Not saying that's what the blog post recommends but it could certainly come off that way if people tried repeating his tactic just based on what he wrote.

It could be abrasive if the rapport isn't there. But a good manager will build that over time until the point were blunt honest questions can be answered bluntly and honestly with no cause for concern.

It'll probably teach them to get good at lying while staring you in the eye, rather than actually elicit any real feedback.

Force is not the answer for dealing with shy people.

Yeah, being blunt is pretty standard for Rands. It's also what I love about the books and articles: They cut straight to the point.

Yea, I think you can ask it in a way that's not abrasive - "Do you feel like you have enough interesting work to do?". I think the thing is that that can be a common question, and it lets people know you care about how engaged they are.

It seems to me that if your employee doesn't want to make eye contact when answering this question, that you already have your answer.

Or maybe the guy is an introverted geek who just wants to get back to coding.

This and similar answers makes me worried about the type of managers people are working for. Even the most introverted person should have a sufficient rapport with their manager to answer this question when it's honestly asked. It's a question the person should be able to answer, for themselves as much as their manager.

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