Yeah, well, I haven’t thought about this case much, so maybe there’s some good counterargument, but I think of personal attacks as “this person’s hair looks ugly” or “this person isn’t fun at parties”, not “this person is not strong in an area of the job that I think is key”. Professional criticism seems quite different from personal attacks, and I hold different norms around how appropriate it is to bring up in public contexts.
Sure, it’s a challenge to someone to be professionally criticized, and can easily be unpleasant, but it’s not irrelevant or off-topic and can easily be quite valuable and important.
Yeah, well, I haven’t thought about this case much, so maybe there’s some good counterargument, but I think of personal attacks as “this person’s hair looks ugly” or “this person isn’t fun at parties”, not “this person is not strong in an area of the job that I think is key”. Professional criticism seems quite different from personal attacks, and I hold different norms around how appropriate it is to bring up in public contexts.
Sure, it’s a challenge to someone to be professionally criticized, and can easily be unpleasant, but it’s not irrelevant or off-topic and can easily be quite valuable and important.