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If the shit sandwich doesn't work on you, that's on you. In fact the goal for personal growth is to be able to take the shit with or without the sandwich. Feedb

If the shit sandwich doesn't work on you, that's on you. In fact the goal for personal growth is to be able to take the shit with or without the sandwich. Feedback delivered roughly is still feedback, in fact the roughest feedback is often the most valuable. It's the stuff that should have been said a long time ago.

nefitty 7y ago
When someone is given feedback they'll walk away with one prominent takeaway. If the first piece of feedback was positive, the second corrective and the last positive, that person is going to walk away thinking they're doing a great job. If you have a piece of feedback just give that feedback. Don't decorate it. Don't sweeten it up. Be direct, objective and be helpful if it requires support to implement. The shit sandwich is just bad management advice.
BeetleB 7y ago
> If the shit sandwich doesn't work on you, that's on you. And if people never believe your compliments, then that's on you, because you'll quickly get the reputation of manufacturing compliments only for the purpose of delivering shit (regardless of whether this is true or not). > In fact the goal for personal growth is to be able to take the shit with or without the sandwich. You misread the GP. When he said "Shit sandwiches don't work." he explicitly added "People can still tell when they're being fed a load of shit." His complaint isn't that people can't handle the shit. It's that they realize they're being given shit and have a problem with the (real or perceived) artifice around it.
- apatters 7y ago
  He is projecting his personal preferences on the human race. The idea that all the people in the world handle criticism exactly the same way is absurd. I have come across many people in my career who needed criticism to be broken to them gently. Others (evidently highly represented on Hacker News, but not from my experience in the general US population, maybe in some other cultures) prefer that it be direct. Other comments in the thread were along the lines of "it's not good criticism if it's not delivered the way I like it" which is basically just saying that you enjoy shooting yourself in the foot.

nefitty 7y ago

When someone is given feedback they'll walk away with one prominent takeaway. If the first piece of feedback was positive, the second corrective and the last positive, that person is going to walk away thinking they're doing a great job. If you have a piece of feedback just give that feedback. Don't decorate it. Don't sweeten it up. Be direct, objective and be helpful if it requires support to implement. The shit sandwich is just bad management advice.

BeetleB 7y ago

> If the shit sandwich doesn't work on you, that's on you. And if people never believe your compliments, then that's on you, because you'll quickly get the reputation of manufacturing compliments only for the purpose of delivering shit (regardless of whether this is true or not). > In fact the goal for personal growth is to be able to take the shit with or without the sandwich. You misread the GP. When he said "Shit sandwiches don't work." he explicitly added "People can still tell when they're being fed a load of shit." His complaint isn't that people can't handle the shit. It's that they realize they're being given shit and have a problem with the (real or perceived) artifice around it.

apatters 7y ago
He is projecting his personal preferences on the human race. The idea that all the people in the world handle criticism exactly the same way is absurd. I have come across many people in my career who needed criticism to be broken to them gently. Others (evidently highly represented on Hacker News, but not from my experience in the general US population, maybe in some other cultures) prefer that it be direct. Other comments in the thread were along the lines of "it's not good criticism if it's not delivered the way I like it" which is basically just saying that you enjoy shooting yourself in the foot.