Overly critical colleagues - help

[SpacedOut1]

How do you deal with overly critical colleagues?

In my last (very corporate) job, I was surrounded by a lot of very senior colleagues who were experienced and highly qualified, who would always have helpful, constructive feedback, and who recognised good work when they saw it. I valued their training and guidance because it was constructive, and when they gave it, I immediately thought “yes that’s good advice”.

I’ve now moved to a smaller company where I’m amongst the most qualified people there. Anyway, two people there with no qualifications to their name who ironically are underperforming in their own work have been relentlessly critical of what I’m putting out. And it’s not constructive, gentle feedback. For example, I’ve just received a message saying “I’m becoming more and more angry the more I’m reading this” about a piece of work I produced months ago. Not “this might need changing” or “I think we should change this”, just sneering comments.

I’m just so angry. I welcome constructive feedback, I always want to improve myself and be better at my job, but taking sarcastic, sneering comments from people without anything constructive to say makes my blood boil. How do I deal with this?!

De-emorltipnalise your response. What does your manager think of ypur performance re those reports?
You could call quick meeting amd ask yr colleagues what their points are and say (ot sure if this is possibly passive aggressive or justt plain aggressive) that you'd appreciate it of they could phrase their comments more professionally for example by avoiding certain phrases.
Do they even need to give feedback?

Perhaps they have a point in that the corporate style may be very different from that of your previous place. But if so this needs to be done professionally.

I would take a stepped approach. Firstly, I would reach out informally and chat to them about their style and how you appreciate their feedback but that the way in which they're delivering it isn't particularly helpful. I would be polite but assertive (RE your point about you being very qualified - don't let them dull your confidence). In the meantime, take screenshots of messages if they're sending them via Teams/Slack, as they sometimes expire. If their behaviour continues, I would bring it across to email and address in said-email that you know you've discussed this before (and when), give examples of their behaviour (with evidence) in the email, and - again - firmly but politely explain why this doesn't work for you. If it continues yet again, you need to escalate to your manager and/or HR, depending on your internal processes. And at the point you should have evidence to back you up. That would be my personal approach. I hope it gets better for you!

Is it any of their business what you are putting out? How does it impact them?

It's not clear from your post whether they are senior to you; the lack of qualifications suggests not. I once responded to a (junior) colleague who sent me something very abrupt and critical with 'I'm going to assume you didn't mean to be that rude. Kind regards'.

I would not respond to the criticism and I would copy your manager in. I don't expect to have to take this shit at work. It's unprofessional.

@Hatty65 I’m not sure whether they’re senior to me or not to be honest! It doesn’t impact them directly, but they have power to change it if they want - so the fact that they didn’t and just preferred to send me awful messages suggests to me that they are just trying to put me down.

I'd reply with
"Gosh, that's harsh. Can we catch a coffee so you can show me where you think things might be changed and we can hopefully agree on a professional document."

I'd take screen shots of the messages and give my manager a heads up that colleagues are critiquing your work.

@Allwelcone I completely agree, and I’m absolutely happy to take on board constructive feedback.

Ironically, I’m actually responsible for shaping the company’s tone of voice and external facing marketing materials. I rang up the man who sent those derisive comments and told him that I’d like his input when putting together the tone of voice/house style documents. As expected, he was very reluctant to contribute.

I can only assume he just wanted to make me feel awful about myself!

It’s often the people with nothing to contribute who criticise the loudest. Probably to try to cover up their ignorance.
Don’t engage and think that the more they criticise then it means you are doing a great job.

"For example, I’ve just received a message saying “I’m becoming more and more angry the more I’m reading this” about a piece of work I produced months ago."

This is bizarre. I would have to ask him what he was angry about.