I recently wrote a few career advice articles for Yahoo!, and on Friday one of them was on the home page.

I’ve talked a bit with my colleague Penelope Trunk about the joys and perils of writing for Yahoo!, and the “spirited” conversations that take place as a result.  Penelope writes a great Yahoo! Finance column on careers, and from the beginning has been getting down right slammed, sometimes quite unfairly, in her readers’ comments.

On Friday, I experienced this first hand.  I wrote about how to proactively cope with jerks at work based on my own experiences and the advice of experts.  I stared at the article’s page in wonder as the comments poured in, topping 1500 by the end of the day.  Some readers wrote thoughtful and insightful criticism of my suggestions and the way I phrased things, and others appreciated and intended to use the guidance.  But many, in both their comments and personal e-mails to me, were terribly rude in the way they expressed their displeasure with the content. 

(The irony of an article about dealing with jerks in the office that gets lots of comments from jerks themselves was not lost on me, by the way.)

I’ve been blogging for over a year now, so in general I understand how this brave new world of citizen journalism goes.  Everyone has an opinion – sometimes informed, sometimes not.  I’ve picked up some incredible information from my blog’s readers, and I always value what they have to say.  But I guess I never realized the extent to which writing in the mainstream media now means you’re constantly subjected to cheap shots from armcharm quarterbacks who think they know better.   

To those of you reading this, I’m probably preaching to the choir, but this bears repeating: in work and in life, put yourself in someone else’s shoes, and try to see a little of their perspective, before assuming that they’re just wrong and don’t deserve to be heard.  In particular, people who put their opinions out there for everyone to hear (public figures, the media, etc.) should get a little respect.  If you don’t agree, that’s cool, but it can never hurt to be civil and diplomatic in how you express it.  Doing the opposite, however, only makes you look bad and may very well burn a bridge with someone you may end up interacting with in the future.