[jon-wood]

A poor 1 to 1, performed because someone further up the chain has said they should be, can definitely be like that. You sit down, everyone says things they already know, and then you all walk away feeling like the time was wasted.

A good 1 to 1, with a manager who actually cares, can be fantastic. Until my last boss I'd written them off as a waste of time, but these days I'll actively seek them out. Good one to ones feel like a conversation, talking about how things are, what's working, what's not, maybe a heads up of potential projects with the aim of getting your input on them. When I left my last job I think my favourite one to one was the last one I did with my boss, I went in fully expecting it to just be "not much point in this", and ended up with a ton of advice on my new job, and how to best use my strengths in a different environment.

A truly great one to one does take a really good manager, and is helped along by a decent relationship with that manager, but you're doing yourself a disservice not to try and nurture that.