[ajb]

A significant fraction of engineers, often the ones who are most deep into their work, have a tendency to just do a brain dump of what they're working on, just because that's what they've currently assembled in their heads. It isn't necessarily useful in a 1:1 but it seems almost involuntary, so I'm not sure it's good to stop them before they've gone through it. May just have to allocate more time to allow them to get through it to any other issues they might have.

[8n4vidtmkvmk]

ya.. if i was productive until 10 seconds before this meeting, then that's whats on my mind. im still solving things in my head and now im being pulled away from that.. for what? i feel like managers are in a different world, jumping from meeting to meeting they don't get deep into things. as a SWE.. I'm balancing 100 little things in my head, deep in thought, solving away.

[shinryuu]

Honestly, I never know what to talk about on 1:1, so that's mostly what I do. I'm not having any particular issues and I'm communicating with the other team members if there is anything I need from them to do my work.

So what am I supposed to do in a situation like that? Nothing is really broken, so I don't have much of constructive points to bring up.

[rramadass]

Right. Set a time limit but not an agenda. Let them be free to tell you anything even if you think it is unnecessary. They key is to build psychological rapport so that gradually he/she feels more comfortable to open up and start Trusting you.