I, too, fell victim to this kind of velvet-gloved critic. Early in my career, I chocked it off to learning a different way to write. Gradually, Simon le Gree came to think that I could not do anything right. My next dose of criticism came with Chuck It. Chuck It constantly edited my writing. Sometimes he stole my ideas and pitched them to management as his. My self confidence suffered. Fast forward to my most recent critic – Glenda. Over the space of 6 months, Glenda turned from the Good Fairy to the Wicked Witch. She would sugar-coat the criticism but eventually nothing I wrote was acceptable. Her second in command backed her up. I was really deep in self doubt. If it were not for other people who read my work and thought it correct, I would have chucked it all for a cardboard box on the street.

What have I learned? Everybody has their own style. The styles of all my critics were never acceptable to succeeding critics. Be true
to thine own self. If your writing is appropriate for the intended audience; conforms to good grammar and sentence and paragraph construction; answers the who, what, when, where, why of the topic then stand your ground. Criticize their criticism if it is not correct. If it is a matter of judgmental choice then stand up for yourself. My experience has been that if you do this then you may have to sharpen your resume and begin circulation. Your alternative is self-imposed silence and humiliation and loss of self-esteem and self-confidence. You will develop a bad attitude, will resent going to work, suffer temperament outbursts, as well as a host of psycho-physical ailments of stress such as ulcers and insomnia and cortisol weight-gain.