When I first got my PPL examiners rating I did what the CAA man told me-- if a man has failed, he has failed there is no in between, its a fail.
I felt quite important at first, failed a few people as the man said but one day after I got a partial in my IR I looked at the problem slightly differently. I thought along the lines that that man carries that fail for the rest of his flying career and then I did not feel quite so big. There were other considerations too like running a business. The net outcome is that I no longer looked at it in the same way as the CAA man. I developed my further training pass, good for business, achieves the same end result also did not offend the students instructor, only problem is guess what, even more excuses on the de-brief!!!
Oh should add still had to fail the odd one or two. The one I remember is the guy that flew me to Coventry and told me it was Birmingham!