Eh, it depends. I find that there is a benefit in highly collaborative projects or in an environment where training is a component.
For instance, a lot of data showed that junior staff productivity tanked as they didn’t have the mentoring opportunities that they would have had in a full remote environment.
I am the team lead and architect for my group. We have green engineers and interns. The other day my team was publically acknowledged as being one of the most productive and well oiled teams because of the detail I put in. On a weekly basis I am doing mentoring activities and 1 on 1s with everyone. And I still find time to be writing specs, design documents, code, and hour of meetings.
It requires very little effort. What I have found is that the vast number of leads and managers just aren’t good at teaching or helping others. It’s not a face to face issue. It’s soft skills, logistics, and actually wanting a good team issue. All I am doing is the opposite of what all my bad managers did.
Maybe, but I find that my staff benefits from several daily discussions and that interaction generally doesn’t happen over the Internet. My staff are more proactive at asking me questions if I’m physically there than over Teams.
We solved that with a party line. Most days we have an open meeting we all sit in that makes natural talking easier. We chit chat and bring up work issues as is we were sitting next to one another. It is totally voluntary, some days its just me alone in the call. Other days none of us are even muted.
right now I am hiding in a call booth in my office on our one in person day a week because the rest of the office is singing along to achy breaky heart while two junior employees throw lifesaver mints at each other.
one CXO is playing the music, the COO hides in the corner by the swag storage, the CEO has a private office not connected to the main bullpen, the two VPs don’t care or are joining in
At that point, it sounds like the group’s culture that you’re in isn’t a good fit for you, and I can understand your frustration that you have to go into work to suffer this.
Between interns and junior engineers, I’d say I am doing about 0.5 to 1 day a week of 1 on 1 work with all of them. Sometimes it’s direct problem solving and other times it’s going over topics they are interested in. The last few weeks have been on development processes and workflows, time management and getting things done, presentations and soft skills. I even helped one work on interviewing.
If I can train them to be amazing at their next job chances are they stick around longer and do great things here.
In my industry, it is very common. It is generally accepted that a large part of senior staff’s time is reviewing the work of junior staff to make the work better. A lot of that requires teaching junior staff how to perform the work correctly.
Depends on the career. As an engineer I really wish we’d quit our decentralized bullshit and just form a guild or union so that after university you join an official apprenticeship rather than find a job looking for people without experience willing to train. The whole x years of experience is often really asking how much mentorship do you need and are you able to lead projects.
Eh, it depends. I find that there is a benefit in highly collaborative projects or in an environment where training is a component.
For instance, a lot of data showed that junior staff productivity tanked as they didn’t have the mentoring opportunities that they would have had in a full remote environment.
I am the team lead and architect for my group. We have green engineers and interns. The other day my team was publically acknowledged as being one of the most productive and well oiled teams because of the detail I put in. On a weekly basis I am doing mentoring activities and 1 on 1s with everyone. And I still find time to be writing specs, design documents, code, and hour of meetings.
It requires very little effort. What I have found is that the vast number of leads and managers just aren’t good at teaching or helping others. It’s not a face to face issue. It’s soft skills, logistics, and actually wanting a good team issue. All I am doing is the opposite of what all my bad managers did.
Maybe, but I find that my staff benefits from several daily discussions and that interaction generally doesn’t happen over the Internet. My staff are more proactive at asking me questions if I’m physically there than over Teams.
We solved that with a party line. Most days we have an open meeting we all sit in that makes natural talking easier. We chit chat and bring up work issues as is we were sitting next to one another. It is totally voluntary, some days its just me alone in the call. Other days none of us are even muted.
right now I am hiding in a call booth in my office on our one in person day a week because the rest of the office is singing along to achy breaky heart while two junior employees throw lifesaver mints at each other.
Where the fuck is the boss?
one CXO is playing the music, the COO hides in the corner by the swag storage, the CEO has a private office not connected to the main bullpen, the two VPs don’t care or are joining in
At that point, it sounds like the group’s culture that you’re in isn’t a good fit for you, and I can understand your frustration that you have to go into work to suffer this.
eh it’s one day a week and I’m respected and appreciated in other contexts it’s just the one day because the boss is convinced it enables the team.
Do many people get mentored in the office? I have worked for decades and have never been mentored.
Edit: I assume random, one off comments don’t count as mentoring. “Don’t put your feed up on the desk” isn’t mentoring right?
Between interns and junior engineers, I’d say I am doing about 0.5 to 1 day a week of 1 on 1 work with all of them. Sometimes it’s direct problem solving and other times it’s going over topics they are interested in. The last few weeks have been on development processes and workflows, time management and getting things done, presentations and soft skills. I even helped one work on interviewing.
If I can train them to be amazing at their next job chances are they stick around longer and do great things here.
In my industry, it is very common. It is generally accepted that a large part of senior staff’s time is reviewing the work of junior staff to make the work better. A lot of that requires teaching junior staff how to perform the work correctly.
Depends on the career. As an engineer I really wish we’d quit our decentralized bullshit and just form a guild or union so that after university you join an official apprenticeship rather than find a job looking for people without experience willing to train. The whole x years of experience is often really asking how much mentorship do you need and are you able to lead projects.