Feedback Fertilizer, Shit Sandwiches, and Other Musings on Growing Careers Like Plants

Let's go pseudo-intellectual, shall we?

Feedback: The Essential Ingredient

One of the advantages of being a freelance consultant, as opposed to a traditional employee, is the opportunity for more frequent feedback. Each piece of feedback is precious, steering your career path. Positive feedback? Even better - it can truly make your day.

Freelancers typically receive more feedback. But this doesn't mean that traditional employees should settle for less. If you're in a management position, remember to provide feedback regularly. And don't shy away from seeking feedback from your own managers.

If I were going for a poetic analogy, giving feedback could be compared to watering a plant: it needs to be done regularly and in the right amounts, or the plant either withers or becomes waterlogged.

To keep things straightforward, here's the key takeaway: Feedback is essential.

Now, speaking of feedback, let's discuss the feedback strategy that should disappear from the face of this world - the ‘shit sandwich.’

Against the ‘Shit Sandwich’

Fact check No. 1: The sandwich, as a concept, was savored by Hillel, a Talmudic scholar from the 1st Century BC, centuries before it was "invented" by a notorious British gambler of the same name.

Fact check No. 2: Sabich ([saˈbiχ]), a pita bread sandwich filled with fried eggplants, hard-boiled eggs, chopped salad, parsley, amba, and tahini sauce, is the best street food dish globally. That's it. Full stop. Period. The debate ends here.

Sabich. By the Wikipedia user Gilabrand under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Fact check No. 3: The 'shit sandwich' is a feedback strategy conceived by corporate America that basically involves sandwiching negative feedback between two layers of positive feedback. In theory, this approach aims to deliver bad news in a way that doesn't hurt someone's feelings. In practice, however, I've yet to meet someone who reacted positively to this method. Instead, I've heard numerous stories of people being called for a pre-dismissal hearing (a "performance review," as they call it) without realizing it because the "bad news" was sugar-coated with fake positivity. 

I suspect the real motive behind the 'shit sandwich' is to make the delivery of feedback more comfortable for the giver rather than the receiver. Giving harsh feedback is challenging, but the person on the receiving end deserves the dignity of hearing your honest opinion. Make the effort - they're worth it.