Imagine going on a nice, peaceful walk. Out of nowhere, random strangers jump out from behind trees to offer “helpful” advice on your route, your pace or even the type of shoes you should be wearing. You didn’t ask for directions, but suddenly, everyone has an opinion on where you should go and how you should get there.
If you’ve ever gotten unsolicited feedback at work, you’ll know exactly how this feels.
In an open-plan office, this effect only multiplies. I used to work in one such office where I wondered at times if someone had inadvertently stuck a “suggestions welcome” sign on my desk.
A colleague from another department once offered: “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-not-graphic-designer colleague chimed in: “Love your presentation earlier! But I was thinking that if you had used Comic Sans, it would have really made it a lot cuter.”
A manager from the sales team suggested: “You should place a mirror on your desk! That way you can check on your smile when you make sales calls.” (I don’t do sales.)
Once, a usually reserved team member kindly let me know: “Um … I didn’t meant to, uh, bring this up, eh … but when you were like, ah, on the call with the, um, client just now … you paused, like, uh, a lot.”
Unsolicited feedback can be well-meaning and occasionally helpful, but most times, it’s like that awful Zoom echo when two laptops are too close without muting the audio – distracting and grating.
And it’ll come from every corner of the hierarchy – from the fresh-faced intern who’s just completed Intro to Marketing to the senior manager from another department who simply loves a captive audience.
Here’s how to handle each archetype without losing your cool.
