Nit Pickers

Nit pickers are the kind of people that I hate to be around. You know the type. They can take any situation and find something wrong with it. They feel their gift to mankind is to find the faults in any circumstance. I see it in business almost every day. One team will complete a project they have poured themselves into for months, and the nit picker will tell them how they should have accomplished the project differently.

For example, say that we had no postal system. One day a company started a business of delivering any envelope from you to any address in the United States for 45 cents. Most people would see that as a great service. The nit picker would complain about the cost, or that international addresses are not included in the 45 cent cost.

Nit pickers make the rest of us callous to legitimate issues. When I hear a known nit picker begin their criticism, I tune out and risk missing valid feedback. Other people react differently. Some use sarcasm. I love the following greeting from an Australian school's answering machine. I am certain it is a sarcastic reaction to nit picking. Enjoy!