I really try not to be sensitive about much. It's hard when someone is harshly criticizing something you've worked really hard on, but I can usually roll with the punches and find something in the situation to be amused about.
I had that experience at work, recently - someone new was pretty harshly ripping apart a program I wrote 5 years ago for a completely different team, not realizing it was internally built by someone right there in the room with him. I finally made a comment to let him know that
I was the "idiot" who wrote it and the "oh crap" look on his face was priceless! He's actually not a bad guy, for whatever reason he seemed to think that huffing and puffing about this program would look impressive in the meeting but it just kind of ended up making him look like a jerk. I read the situation for what it was and didn't take it personally and I even let him off really easily in the meeting, and now I'm one of his favorite people. I
could have gotten all upset and rushed to defend myself and my work and really beaten him up over it, but I am confident enough to let it all speak for itself and can afford to be kind and forgiving about it, and it makes my work relationships so much better. He brought in bagels for my entire department as an apology and now stops by my desk regularly just to say hello, and is always very careful to thank me personally for whatever little thing I fixed for him last, so I guess we're buddies now! LOL
quilt9226 is very right - a soft answer not only turns away wrath, it can also create friends in unexpected places.
