Imagine taking a nice, peaceful walk. Out of nowhere, random strangers jump out from behind trees to offer ‘helpful’ advice about your route, your pace or even the type of shoes you should wear. You didn’t ask for directions, but suddenly everyone has an opinion about where to go and how to get there.
If you’ve ever received unsolicited feedback at work, you know exactly what it feels like.
In an open office space this effect is only greater. I worked in one of those offices where I occasionally wondered if someone had accidentally stuck a “suggestions welcome” sign on my desk.
A colleague from another department once said: “You shouldn’t use headphones in the office. You look disconnected from your surroundings and I had to wave at you to get your attention.
A definitely non-graphic designer colleague chimed in: “I rather love your presentation! But I thought if you had used Comic Sans it really would have been a lot more fun.
A sales team manager suggested: “Put a mirror on your desk! This way you can check your smile when you make sales calls.” (I don’t do sales.)
Once, a normally reserved team member kindly informed me, “Um… I didn’t mean to bring this up, um… but when you were like, um, on the phone with the, um , client just now… you took a break for a while.”
Unsolicited feedback can be well-intentioned and sometimes helpful, but most often it’s that awful Zoom echo when two laptops are too close without muting the sound – distracting and annoying.
And it comes from all corners of the hierarchy – from the fresh-faced intern who just completed Intro Marketing to the senior manager from another department who simply loves a captive audience.
Here’s how to deal with each archetype without losing your cool.