[a_square_peg]

It's strange how so many informal conversations have become formalized.

Phone call? Book a calendar invite. Talk to your manager? Schedule a one-on-one. Want to raise a technical comment? Issue a Jira ticket.

Not to say that this is all bad, but wondering if it's really helpful.

[Cthulhu_]

> Phone call? Book a calendar invite.

I hate unscheduled phone calls; I've asked recruiters to make an appointment first, so I can be mentally ready for a phone call. Else I'll be interrupted during focus time (headphones on, balancing seven things in my head simultaneously, you know the drill).

> Talk to your manager? Schedule a one-on-one.

For random day to day stuff, sure, scheduling something might be overboard. But for more serious business, you should put aside some time for both. This is also about respecting each other's time and schedule; you are not the center of your manager's attention.

> Want to raise a technical comment? Issue a Jira ticket.

I think this is an important step to take so that you sit down and think about the issue; it's like rubber ducking, if you can't explain it in e.g. a ticket, you don't understand the problem well enough. Second, task tracking software is documentation; in ten years' time you will thank yourself for making a ticket. (That said, I don't believe storing it in 3rd party software is good, ideally all documentation, including tickets, would be in your git repository. Commit volume and churn is a bit of an issue though).

[rramadass]

>but wondering if it's really helpful

No, it is not.

Too much formalization brings the power dynamic imbalance front-and-center and leads to people telling you what they think you want to hear.

[alexashka]

The intention matters.

If you're scheduling because you've seen over time that predictable schedules is what other co-workers prefer, then you're using the tools to improve everyone's lives.

If you're scheduling because you're supposed to schedule and you never gave it second thought - you're in good company, you're simply among the 99%.

[yakshaving_jgt]

Just to offer a counterpoint:

I used to just ping my direct reports for 1:1s each week when it suited me, and then realised that that's pretty disrespectful of other people's time. I switched to asking people to schedule time with me in my calendar out of respect for their schedule.

[digitalsushi]

Those are all just boxes with a shipping label on it, so that we can force a receipt.

Because we're past a point where if you don't have that shipping label on it, you can just ignore it and say you never got it.

It was inevitable.

[koonsolo]

The thing is, people don't do that. At least not everybody is so open to naturally take the initiative. So scheduling in something makes sure it actually happens.