Work Advice: Boss wants everyone’s input on my work, even if they lack expertise

Reader: I’m a graphics professional. Throughout my career, my field’s apparent accessibility opens the door for everyone - bosses’ spouses, entry-level employees, random non-stakeholders who happen to be in meetings when graphics are discussed - to make unsolicited suggestions.

My supervisor has decided she’d like co-workers from her communications team, none of whom are graphics professionals, to attend graphics-request intake meetings with our internal customers so the co-workers can make suggestions on potential product graphics.

I feel that her suggestion is a blatant boundary infraction that devalues my college degree and career experience. I don’t make suggestions on how co-workers in other areas of expertise perform their work and am certain it would be frowned upon if I did.

She says she’s trying to facilitate team collaboration. I believe this has the potential to destroy the unity we already enjoy. The supposed collaboration seems utterly one-sided, and I’m not going to feel comfortable discussing the merits (or lack thereof) of suggestions from untrained co-workers in front of customers.

Am I being overly sensitive, or is my boss overstepping a boundary here?

Karla: Nothing makes a creative professional’s blood run cold like hearing, “Let’s get the whole team to weigh-in on this.”

No profession is immune from kibitzers. Whether you’re a lawyer, doctor or professional sports coach, everyone wants to second-guess your expert opinion. Still, there are boundaries to keep the kibitzers out of the law library, operating room and locker room so the experts can get the job done.

But when it comes to graphic design, the boundaries are harder to maintain, even without a boss who wants to turn your occupation into a team-building sandbox. Success is more subjective; the work itself looks like fun; and even those who know nothing about art are happy to tell you what they do and don’t like.

Having to indulge every amateur suggestion in a spitballing session can feel as offensive as if the spitballs were literal. It will strain your goodwill toward your colleagues, and that strain will eventually show in your responses - and, as you indicate, none of this is going to make a good impression in front of customers, whether they’re inside or outside the company.

So let’s look at what you can do about it.

An essential part of being a creative professional is learning to corral kibitzers so they don’t siphon off too much of your time and energy. In a commercial enterprise where your work is but one piece of a package, you can’t perform in a vacuum; you’re going to have to accept some degree of unsolicited collaboration, especially if your boss insists. But you can set boundaries by keeping the focus on the customer experience.

Here’s how you sell it to your boss: “I appreciate the importance of brainstorming, but I’m concerned the customer will get overwhelmed if we pull them too far backstage in our planning process. I recommend our team simply listen to the customer during the intake meeting, then convene separately to discuss ideas. Then I can present a limited selection of the best ideas to the customer to choose from.”

The argument is not that you’re being disrespected by noobs invading your turf; it’s that you want to make sure you’re delivering what the client wants as efficiently as possible.

You’ll also want your boss to establish who’s selecting the best ideas to present. Ideally, that should be your call. But if your boss insists on doing it, or taking a vote, then you don’t have to be the bad guy rejecting anyone’s ideas or defending your decisions. You’re free to focus on the solo work only you can do. And if, in the process, you are inspired to include a wild-card design of your own among those being offered, you have that prerogative.

Once the customer picks the direction they want to go in, you’re past the intake stage, so hopefully that satisfies your boss’s need to involve the whole team. If not, you might have to continue acting as a feedback filter until you can convince your boss that repeated committee reviews are bogging down the process and frustrating the customer.

I realize this may involve relinquishing a measure of creative control that you previously enjoyed, and it doesn’t ease the sting of feeling devalued by your boss. But if you can set some guardrails to contain the chaos and prevent it from spilling onto clients, that may be the best outcome possible while you work for this company.

Karla L. Miller offers weekly advice on workplace dramas and traumas. You can send her questions at karla.miller@washpost.com.