If there is one thing that I really want to do in 2024, it's to retire the word "feedback". Not in the technical sense, but definitely in the business sense. The fact that we have to say positive feedback in order to assure someone that we're not about to sit down and criticize them for a little while should be telling that we've effectively replaced the word criticism with it. It also has allowed people to move in with unconstructive criticism, and if they're called out on it, you were just providing feedback. You were doing the recipient a favour by providing a service.
It's on my mind because I've received a lot of feedback this year, most of which I have found profoundly unhelpful, and much of it felt mostly like the provider had been searching for things in which to use as a way to provide said feedback. In one particular case, it was used to mask their impatience with something that I was tasked with providing, but had yet to have adequate time to even begin on working on said request. Corners were not cut, the assignment was well understood, yet as "some feedback for how you're handling [my] request" was provided. Particularly irksome to me was the untimeliness of it all.
I think that I've started to find that one of the most frustrating things about "providing feedback" versus "criticizing", is that we're generally required to save our critcism until specific parts of something are finished. One doesn't step in during a sculptor's roughing out of something and state that their current work doesn't look like an elephant. Yet, with "feedback", we're freed from having to wait. It's just part of the "feedback loop", so one can dive it at any time with any old negative thought that you can bring to the table. That's not helpful, that's being a jerk.
It's also important to remember that these things are coming from one person's perspective. The provider might also be terrible in enacting the concept that they're providing feedback on, or suggesting that one should be doing. I've often seen many people demand to use certain documents or tools for a class of tasks, but then patently neglect to do so themselves out of convenience. If it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander.
Ultimately, I find the whole vibe around feedback as a business concept in practice to be destructive, and it's time to start calling it criticism again.
Authored by: Mal
Written: 2024-01-02