Work Work Work

At work, we're piloting a survey where you provide confidential feedback to your manager. I wrote up this glowing free response to my old manager in NY because she is fantastic. She's definitely a model for me if I ever become a manager in my career. So here are the notes of what a great manager is IMHO:

• Perf reviews: During our 1:1, she didn't just talk to me about what she thought as a manager, but took the time to also review what I and my peers wrote about my work.
• Removing roadblocks: During our regular 1:1s, she would explicitly ask me if I was having any issues with my work and what she could do to help. She was also very available to provide real-time feedback and solutions.
• Career development and personal well-being: More than anything, I appreciated that she was genuinely invested in my and the team's well-being. She would ask questions like "What are you doing that you like/dislike, so that we can have you do more/less of it?", "What else do you want to take on or explore?", "What are you thinking about longer term and how can we make that happen?" Throughout the year, several members on our team either took on more responsibilities, completely changed roles, and a couple even left the company. She was supportive on every end to see that they were doing what was right for them in their career.
  
• Guidance: Though most of the work was not glamourous, she was keen on acknowledging accomplishments to make it seem less painful. I don't know how she knew when to give me space to be creative versus being in the weeds of the work; but she somehow balanced it appropriately. As the most junior member of the team, I also never felt that she was just shuffling off grunt work, which I have experienced on other teams and seen with other managers. There was a clear difference between doing the work that needed to be done and doing work that was interesting to me, and she openly appreciated both.
• Constructive criticism: I'll be honest, I don't take criticism well. But she would deliver it in a way that would actually motivate me to fix it and improve. I think it's because she never made criticism seem like a heavy top-down reprimand, but rather an acknowledgment that I'm trying my best and this is what I can do to be even better. She is humble about her own challenges as well, which makes me respect her and value her feedback so much more.

On another note, it's been exactly one month since I joined my new team. This team is basically a point person for all People Ops communications, and so sometimes I feel like all I'm doing is going from meeting to meeting to meeting. Here's the proof:

Last 13 weeks:
Avg time in meetings: 14.69 hrs/wk (32.6%)
Avg productive time (4+ hours with no meetings): 19.38 (43.1%)

Last 4 weeks:
Avg time in meetings: 20.69 hrs/wk (46%)
Avg productive time (4+ hours with no meetings): 2 (4.4%)

Yeesh, no wonder I'm always finishing up on the shuttle!