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