Nitpicking co-workers? Beat them at their own game
Nothing sets your teeth on edge like having to deal with a co-worker or project manager who thinks they can complete communication tasks better than you.
It’s one thing to receive constructive feedback from another writer, designer, or PR pro — or from someone like a marketing director. It’s something else entirely to receive unwelcome feedback from a co-worker whose one claim to expertise is that he or she reads a lot.
Then there are those who demand detailed, sourced explanations for your decisions and who will argue with you if you don’t follow their suggestions. These arguments may even turn personal as your co-worker tries to discredit you by pulling out a blog post from 10 years ago in which you didn’t use a serial comma.
I once had someone demand my log in and password for AP Stylebook.com so he could confirm what I told him about how to capitalize a person’s title.
And still others may make changes to your work just so they can feel like they’re doing their job. Years ago, I worked with someone who, if she couldn’t find anything to change in my copy, would immediately begin questioning my use of images and fonts.
So, how do you deal with these know-it-all colleagues who feel compelled to make changes for the sake of making changes?
Add minor mistakes to the copy, thereby giving your officious co-workers something to change. Misspell a word. Use a comma at the end of a sentence instead of a period. “Forget” to add in extra space between paragraphs. The idea is to give the reviewer something minor to find and focus on so they’ll leave the rest of your copy alone.
It’s passive aggressive and manipulative; but, it works. Frequently, the reviewer is so happy that they can play “gotcha” with you for using “hte” instead of “the” that they ignore the rest of your work.
Try it and let me know how it works.
