Does the “compliment sandwich” actually work, or does it just make people tune out the feedback part? I’ve tried softening critiques with praise upfront, but sometimes it feels like the main point gets lost. I’m wondering if people take it seriously or just see it as fluff.

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Legitimate positive feedback is just as important as negative feedback and should not be fluff. Staff should be encouraged to lean into their skills while working on areas of weakness, all of us should. This is where emphasis should be when evaluating so it's not just seen as fluff to the recipient and can be applied. If you have someone with nothing positive to lean on there is a much bigger issue.

That being said some people will hear what they want to hear no matter what. I just experienced that with an intern we did not extend an offer to. Grasped onto the negative like we told him he was the worst possible employee ever and wouldn't hear anything else we had to say even though there was a lot of positive. He refused to hear any constructive feedback which proved to me we made the right decision and he wasn't ready for a job.

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I think this really depends on the actual content. If you give a pointless compliment just to soften a negative comment, that will be obvious. Intelligent people lose respect for you if you engage in obvious trickery. It's better to just give the criticism, and include the compliments only if they're valid and called for. Otherwise just treat people with respect and give them the real substance.

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I think it depends on the person. Some appreciate the softer entry, but others just want the real talk. I’ve had better luck asking how people prefer to receive feedback before defaulting to a formula.

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It works. The critical feedback is heard because it's always the stuff they need. Nobody needs the compliments so folks are listening for the important parts.

But it works because critical feedback without it can be taken harshly and in a way that some folks respond to by shutting down. It's not ideal to have to manipulate feedback that way but I consider it a form of respect to recognize the hard work before tearing it apart.

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