That is often not a mistake. It is typically deliberate. On one extreme there are sociopaths that look for any opening to abuse. This is sinister, but tends

That is often not a mistake. It is typically deliberate. On one extreme there are sociopaths that look for any opening to abuse. This is sinister, but tends to be more rare. The other extreme comprises stupid people who view any criticism as a personal assault, the Dunning-Kruger people. The Dunning-Kruger people tend to assume they are super awesome because people aren't willing to invest the energy to mention otherwise. For those wonderful angels I am willing to lie to their face, because the nonsense that comes back is a stressful nonproductive time suck. Those are the people nobody wants to work with because they are a net negative and continue to exist merely as padding for future layoffs. The common uniting theme is underdeveloped self-awareness/empathy. For everybody else kindness is a dose of honesty coupled with empathy and mutual reassurance regardless of excellent or poor performance. When it's sincere it is an investment in relationship building.