r/technology • u/Choobeen • 9h ago

Society Research shows the 'compliment sandwich' is no longer effective - University of Western Ontario

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-compliment-sandwich-longer-effective.html
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u/im-ba 4h ago

I never do the sandwich thing.

Instead, I rephrase my criticism as a question. This gives the subject of my criticism a chance to correct me without feeling attacked or defensive.

Sometimes my criticism is invalid, so phrasing it as a question gives me an out as well. "Maybe I'm just stupid" is a real possibility here. I'm nothing more than thinking meat, after all.

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u/JakoraT 2h ago

Why.... are you the way that you are?

6

u/SunriseApplejuice 2h ago

I just turn it into something actionable instead.

Rather than “you are never available in Slack and take days to respond” I would say “It helps me to get regular responses in a prompt matter, even if it’s just an asynchronous reply or ‘hey I saw this and I’ll reply when I have time’”.