Is there such a thing

[NitaThompson]

I recently had a conversation with a co-worker about a term that most businesses and people use.  

Constructive Criticism

Is there really such a thing?  Seriously..some person came up with this term and probably made quite a bit of money on it.

A visual here if you will.  You take 6 blocks and you make a tower.  You are constructing a tower.  Next criticism comes along and tears apart your well built construction.  What do you have left?  A mess.

As you may have guessed we are discouraged from using that term where I work being that it truly does not exist.  My supervisor calls it feedback or coaching.  

Just a little brain teaser to get you all wondering.  Is there any other phrases or terms out there that dont make any sense?

[steverimmer]

heh In my experience constructive criticism is usually used when someone wants to criticise freely and to whatever extreme they like, but feel the need to justify themselves, either to their own conscience or to others witnessing.

But a phase which is used often and always makes me wonder is "Just good friends" I always feel it either means they've just split up and hate the sight of one another but don't want to let it be known or are a new couple but don't want that to be known either.  After all is there really such a thing as "just bad friends" or "Just mediocre friends" or whatever

[Dorganath]

I suppose that depends on how it's offered and how it's perceived.

By definition, anything said that's a negative comment about one's performance, actions, results, etc. is criticism.  You can't help people improve without telling them what they did wrong as well.

It's all in the presentation.

Many people cannot pull it off, however.

[muaddib]

me being one of them
i got slap by my grilfreind when i was tryin to tell her somethin that would make her painting look better