Where to Sit in a Meeting with an Employee (4 Scenarios)

What changes when you change where you sit and how you set up the table?

A one-on-one meeting is a private conversation between a manager and a direct report, also called a 1-on-1 or an individual meeting. When you change where you sit (the seating arrangement) and how you set up the table, four things change:

• Which way the documents face. If you sit directly across the table and keep the documents in front of you, your team member has to read them upside down. If you sit across a corner of the table and put the documents on the corner, you can both read them.
• Where your team member can look. If you sit face to face with nothing on the table, the only place your team member can look is your face. With a single sheet on the table, they can glance down at it while they talk.
• The path to the door. If you sit on the side closer to the door, your team member has to walk past you to leave the room.
• What is in front of you. If you face your team member with your laptop open, they can't tell what you are typing.

In 300,000 1-on-1 sessions extracted from the records of Kakeai, KAKEAI's 1-on-1 service, 78.0% of 1-on-1s are held in person. That means the question of where to sit comes up often. The "clarity score" is a score from 0 to 5 (a 6-point scale) that the employee gives after a 1-on-1. Among sessions where a clarity score was submitted, the share that scored 4 or higher was 59.7% for in-person sessions and 64.7% for online sessions. Online sessions were slightly higher, and the gap is only a few points.

Neither Kakeai's records nor KAKEAI's survey of 10,000 employees in Japan looked at how seating or table setup changes the way employees feel. This page shows how to choose seats and set up the table so you get the real advantage of meeting in person: two people reading the same document together.

The survey asked people what topics they discuss in meetings with their manager (multiple answers allowed). 76.7% named "specific work," 43.4% "performance evaluations," 31.1% "relationships," and 22.9% "physical and mental well-being." Meetings with a manager cover very different kinds of topics, from work to evaluations, relationships, and well-being.

When the topic changes, so do the documents on the table and the best place to put them. We recommend not settling on a single seating position, and choosing based on what the meeting is about.

Based on its experience supporting more than 3 million 1-on-1s and the results of its survey of 10,000 employees, KAKEAI believes the purpose of a meeting is to move work and growth forward, and that seating and table setup should be chosen to serve that purpose. Clever seating does not let you skip saying something difficult.

Where to sit and how to set up the table, by type of meeting

Get clear first on what the meeting will cover, decide what goes on the table, and then choose the seats. The table below shows how to sit and what to say first in four types of meetings.

Except when your team member comes to you for advice, your team member sits closer to the door and you sit farther in. That way, if your team member needs to step out, they don't have to walk past you. In every type of meeting, sit close enough that both of you can reach the documents without getting up.

Delivering a performance review: where to sit and where to put the review form

In a performance review meeting, decide first that the review form will face your team member, and choose the seats to match. Print two copies of the form and put one in front of your team member. If you only have one copy, place it on the corner of the table, turned so it is easy for your team member to read.

Even with two copies, sitting across a corner lets you point to the item you are discussing on your team member's copy. Have a pen ready so your team member can write on it.

In KAKEAI's survey, 9.3% of respondents named "I can't speak honestly because I worry about how it will affect my evaluation or how I'm seen" as a problem in meetings with their manager. Among respondents in their 20s, the figure was 14.4%, higher than for respondents overall. This question was about meetings with a manager in general, not about performance review meetings specifically.

We recommend putting the review form on the table as soon as you sit down, instead of keeping it face down in front of you.

If your company shares reviews on screen, it helps for you and your team member to sit side by side and look at the same screen. If you stay face to face and turn the screen toward them, you end up explaining without being able to see the screen yourself.

Asking for an improvement: where to sit and what to put on the table

When you ask for an improvement, put a record of the facts between you and sit across a corner of the table. If you are discussing late quotes, prepare one sheet that lists the promised dates next to the dates the quotes were actually submitted. With that sheet, you can both point to the same dates and confirm what happened.

Some advice says to "start with small talk to break the ice once you sit down." For performance review meetings and meetings where you ask for an improvement, KAKEAI does not recommend opening with small talk. Your team member ends up making conversation while wondering what the meeting is really about. Tell them at the very start what the meeting is for.

When your team member comes to you for advice: where to sit and what to keep in front of you

When your team member comes to you for advice, let them go into the meeting room first and choose a seat. They brought up the topic, so it is natural for them to choose where they feel comfortable talking. Close your laptop and put your phone away in your bag. Keep only a blank sheet and a pen on the table, and take notes on the table where your team member can see them.

Kakeai's records include what employees chose as their expectation of their manager for each topic they planned to discuss in a 1-on-1. For the "relationships" topic, "I want your opinion" was chosen 15.9% of the time and "I want you to listen" 14.1%. For the "work progress and approach" topic, "I want us to think it through together" was the most common at 17.0%, and "I want you to listen" was 7.5%. Even within the same topic, what employees want from their manager varies.

When your team member comes to you for advice, try asking first what they want from you.

If they want you to listen, put your pen down and focus on listening. If they want to think it through together, it often helps to put the sheet between you and write down what they are stuck on and what they want to do. If they ask for your opinion, first ask what they think, and then give your own opinion in concrete terms.

If the conversation is about their health, start by listening. Don't make decisions about seeing a doctor or taking time off in the meeting. Connect your team member with your occupational health contact (such as a company doctor) or HR.

When your team member brings up quitting: where to sit and what to keep off the table

When your team member brings up quitting, let them sit on the side closer to the door, and keep documents off the table. If you bring out a handover sheet or resignation paperwork first, the conversation starts with procedures before you have heard the reasons. In a glass-walled meeting room, let your team member take a seat where their face is hard to see from the hallway.

In KAKEAI's survey, 9.7% of respondents named "I can't bring up what I want to talk about or should talk about" as a problem in their regular meetings with their manager.

If your team member asks, "Do you have a minute?", don't ask what it is about in the hallway. Book a meeting room the same day and hear them out.

For the last working day and the procedures, check your company's work rules and consult HR. Avoid giving definitive answers in the meeting based only on your own judgment.

How to sit when you can't choose the seats or the table is too big

Even in a meeting room where you can't choose the seats, you can still change which way the documents face and what you keep in front of you. Here is how to sit in each situation:

• In a small room for two where you can only sit face to face, turn the documents toward your team member and read them upside down yourself.
• At a long table for 6 or 8 people, use the corner at one end. If you face each other in the middle of the long sides, you can't reach the documents.
• A low coffee table with a sofa makes it hard to write on documents, so it is not well suited to performance review meetings. If no other room is free that day, it helps to bring 2 clipboards.
• In a room where you can move the tables, use just one table and turn it so your team member can sit on the side closer to the door. If you push two tables together, the documents end up out of reach.

What to avoid when deciding where to sit

What to avoid is applying one seating arrangement to every meeting, and setting things up so your team member can't see the documents or what is in front of you.

• Making "don't sit face to face, sit at an angle" a rule. Some advice says "sitting face to face feels confrontational, so sit at an angle." KAKEAI does not recommend applying one seating arrangement to every meeting. Sitting at an angle suits meetings where the two of you read documents together. If you are looking at one screen together, sitting side by side works better, and for a short check-in without documents, sitting face to face is fine.
• Removing the table and facing each other on chairs alone. Some advice says "without a table, you feel closer," but this doesn't suit performance review meetings or meetings where you ask for an improvement. There is nowhere to put documents, and your team member can't write anything down.
• Sitting down first and waiting with your laptop open. When your team member walks in, all they see is the back of your screen and you typing. Close your laptop before your team member sits down.
• Talking through the review form while keeping it face down in front of you. Your team member ends up listening to an explanation of a document they can't read.

How to tell whether the seating and table setup worked

To tell whether the seating and table setup worked, look back on these three points rather than on the mood in the room:

• Were you both able to talk while pointing to and writing on the documents on the table?
• Did the documents or notes you wrote on stay with your team member after the meeting?
• At the end of the meeting, was the next step in your team member's own words?

In KAKEAI's survey, 56.7% of respondents who said their meetings lead to action almost every time felt that the meetings lead to results. Among those who said meetings lead to action about half the time, the figure was 15.7%. People who said more of their meetings lead to action were more likely to feel the meetings produce results.

Your seating and table setup are good enough if the two of you can discuss what to work on next, write it down, and take it with you. One option is to ask your team member at the end of the meeting whether the seating made it easy to talk, and use the answer for the next meeting.