The Bent Archive

Not cramming for performance reviews

At the risk of sounding like just another email from your friendly HR business partner: Have you started prepping for your next review yet?

Cool Boss Move: show your work

I’m thinking back to one of our 1-on-1s, Andy, when you plunked down a huge packet of paper and asked, “Wanna see this budget proposal I worked on 3 years ago?”

Is there a right way to write a subject line?

There isn’t really a right way to write a subject line. Or, there is, but in the same way there’s a right way to diet, which is to say there are a lot of options, and some people are going to be more uptight about their way than others. We’re not uptight

Yes, we do mean weekly 1-on-1s

They should be at least 30 minutes, because that’s how long a decently meaningful conversation takes. And: they should not focus on status updates or project deliverables. That’s what all those other meetings are for.

How to panic

Today’s about a very specific kind of panic that we thought was maybe too specific to write about until we each kept coming up with example after example after example of it happening. I think of it as “third-party panic” — where you unexpectedly get swept into someone else’s freak out and wham-o, you’re suddenly co-piloting the panic rocket.

The January Questionnaire

We didn’t hop on the New Year, New You train last year and I certainly am not hopping on it now.

Our essential resume and cover letter tips

Resumes and cover letters are really, really hard. They are two super-specific, totally unique genres of writing that we have to master in order to prove we are qualified at some completely different set of skills. It’s like having the first round of a trout-fishing contest be an essay test.

Two questions about productivity

The first: How do I figure out if my report’s lack of productivity is my fault or theirs?

The second: My team is working with a contractor who is spending about three times as long as we all predicted to do his work. The quality of the work is fine, and he’s not missing any deadlines, but he’s burning through hours like crazy. How do I ask him to work faster?

Let’s see if we can answer both of these at once.