Imagine taking a nice, peaceful walk. Out of nowhere, strangers appear from behind the trees to give you “useful” advice on your route, your pace or even the type of shoes you should wear. You haven’t asked for directions, but suddenly everyone has an opinion on where you should go and how you should get there.

If you’ve ever received unsolicited feedback at work, you’ll know exactly how you feel.

In an open office, this effect only multiplies. I used to work in one of these offices and sometimes wondered if someone had inadvertently stuck a “suggestions welcome” sign on my desk.

A colleague from another department once suggested: “You shouldn’t use headphones in the office. You seem disconnected from your surroundings and I had to wave to get your attention.

A colleague who is certainly not a graphic designer chimed in: “I love your presentation earlier! But I thought if you had used Comic Sans it really would have made it a lot cuter.

A sales team leader suggests, “You should put a mirror on your desk!” This way you can check your smile when making sales calls. (I don’t do sales.)

One day, a normally reserved team member kindly let me know, “Um… I wasn’t planning on, uh, talking about it, huh… but when you were like, ah, communication with the, uh, client earlier… you took a break, like, uh, a lot.

Unsolicited comments can be well-intentioned and sometimes helpful, but most of the time it’s like that horrible Zoom echo when two laptops are too close without muting – distracting and irritating.

And it will come from all corners of the hierarchy – from the new intern who just finished their introduction to marketing to the senior manager in another department who simply loves a captive audience.

Here’s how to handle each archetype without losing your cool.