Apparently, there’s some managerial best practice out there that says managers and the employees that work under them should meet once a month 1-on-1. I think the goal is to have some sort of fairly informal time set aside for anything the employee might want to talk about – concerns about management, workplace issues, problems with co-workers, etc. My biggest problem of these things is that I never know just what there is to talk about.
Here’s my biggest issues with the whole 1-on-1 thing, I don’t really have anything to talk about in those meetings. I have no concerns for management, about my co-workers, or any of that stuff. As a result, I go into these things having no idea what to say. They’re confidential, so I’m not even sure what my co-workers say during those things.
I’m going to guess this is a good sign, because quite frankly it’s either that or that I’m an even worse conversationalist than I thought. Typically we can get these meetings to a list of what’s coming up in terms of future work, which is fine, but if that doesn’t happen, it generally winds up being an unpleasant experience (either because it’s awkward on account of I have nothing to contribute, or it’s awkward because I screwed something up and this is a chance to revisit that in detail).
There may be a managerial handbook I could read that would tell me what I’m supposed to say in these things, but to be honest, I’m not that interested in managing. Does anybody else go through these monthly meetings, and if so, what is there to talk about?
I don’t know if I’m just not paying enough attention to my workplace, or I’m not thinking far enough outside my immediate job description, but I just don’t see what I have to bring to the table at these things. I’ve got so little to say at 1-on-1 meetings with my boss, I can’t even figure out enough text to fill a blog post on the topic. Does anyone ever have anything productive to say at these things, and if so, what?