[version_five]

That's how most companies work, if that frequently, with difficulties handled by exception. Only in big tech is that the focus of the "work" and do you have managers who spend their time on it, leading to the "professional meeting attenders" mentioned elsewhere.

[JohnBooty]

My experience with 1:1s is that they uncover things that wouldn't be uncovered... well, without 1:1s.

Most of us are "trained" not to "bother" our managers so allocating some dedicated time is valuable in my experience.

I'm honestly baffled at the pushback against 1:1s I'm reading. Assuming you have a relatively normal number of direct reports for software engineering (5-10) that adds up to not a lot of hours.

At companies without regular 1:1s, I often had no idea if my manager thought I was doing a good job or not. You can say that this is bad management or bad communication, and you're right but management and communication tend to be rather poor in our industry! 1:1s are more often than not a part of the solution.

[eddyfromtheblok]

yes, at a company, which has been running for several decades, each of my manager’s made sure to ask what I wanted to do with my career. To not ask, one may infer that there isn’t much career advancement available.

[nradov]

It's not just the tech industry. For better or worse, frequent 1:1 meetings with direct reports are a common management practice in most large US companies.