[teampractices] Quantity (of non-positive feedback) is a quality all of its own

Fri Jul 19 18:28:58 UTC 2019

I just read this Stack Overflow blog post about feeling attacked by
non-positive feedback
<https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/07/18/building-community-inclusivity-stack-overflow/>,
and found the pattern described to be very familiar from both WMF
interactions I've observed and Wiki community interactions:

we introduced a new company-wide policy that I felt was relatively benign.
> What happened next was that, from my point of view, the engineering team
> completely lost it.  … What had happened to my amazing coworkers that were
> so kind and wonderful? I felt attacked and diminished. It seemed people
> weren’t valuing my work or my judgment.
>

… As I went back through that Friday afternoon chat log, I was shocked to
> see that no one had been hurling insults. … people had some well
> put together arguments about why they felt this policy was a bad idea. …
> I didn’t find people questioning my ability as a manager, throwing around
> insults, or saying anything that that illustrated why I was feeling so
> targeted.
>

… The monster in this case is not one person, it was created when lots of
> people, even with great intentions, publicly disagreed with you at the same
> time. Even kind feedback can come off as caustic and mean when there is a
> mob of people behind it
>


Joel Aufrecht (he/him, they/them)

Program Manager (Technology)
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>
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