Does someone in your office have bad breath or a propensity to wear ugly ties? Afraid to approach them?
The solution could be nicecritic.com, a website created by Erik Riesenberg, the marketing director for a New York publishing house, who after it took a few drinks for a colleague to gather the courage to suggest he trim his nose hair, realized the world could use an easy - and anonymous - way for workers to pass along uncomfortable messages to colleagues.
The site has various messages pre-written by Mr. Riesenberg - in a polite, Mary Poppins voice - which you simply click on and are dispatched by e-mail to the colleague you are trying to help. They include "it looks as if your zipper is down," "please consider buttoning your blouse a little more," "try to limit the amount of time using your speakerphone," and "we can see when you are surfing the Internet to non-work related sites."
But don't try to use it in a vendetta. The site only allows one unique message to be sent to a specific e-mail address within 96 hours. Also, any recipient can unsubscribe from the service and will never receive another message. It's meant, as the name signifies, as a nice critic.
