The cult of toxic positivity

The idea of workplace toxicity "spans a wide spectrum that includes subtle and indirect signals" (Bhat et al., 2021, p. 2017). An Adam Grant emailer earlier this year explored the idea of 'toxic positivity'; a concept that resonated with me. He said "urging people to be positive doesn’t boost their resilience. It denies their reality. People in pain don’t need good vibes only. They need a hand to [...] steady [them] through all the [turmoil]. Strength doesn’t come from forced smiles. It comes from feeling supported" (Grant, 2024). 

This is a great point. I was particularly taken by the image accompanying this post (which I have reused in my post image, from Avamariedoodles (2024). These are great reframing comments, which allow people who are going through tough times to talk about their tough times without us denying their experience of these tough times. We allow them their suffering; we acknowledge that what they are going through is absolute crap. We ask them what we can do. Or if there is anything we CAN do to help. 

Funnily enough Adam Grant's post reminded me of a book I read a few years ago about a book which was centred around America's love affair with positive thinking (Ehrenreich, 2009). The author explores cancer diagnoses, America's mega churches, and the sanitising and de-iconising of Christian religion within the US, the financial sector, the US sub-prime mortgage market, and the 2008 global financial crisis; suggesting these may have been affected by positive thinking manifesting as a wilful disregard for economic reality (Ehrenreich, 2009). While this premise may be a bit of a stretch, positive thinking is - in my view - a fad that has grown into an almost cult-like passion, where no one is allowed to mention anything negative. 

I, like Adam Grant (2024), wonder if this 'fake' positivity cult may be amplifying workplace stress and emotional labour...? It was noted in the work by Moran and Nadir that a "uniquely American approach to service, work, and leisure creates a distinctive set of challenges" in their workplace (2021, p. 13) including oppression, "emotional labor, burnout and low morale" (p. 18), with "toxic positivity" adding "another slap" (p. 18). These authors argue that owning how we feel, particularly through the pandemic, is important for everyone's wellbeing (Moran & Nadir, 2021), with the suggestion "that 'negative' emotions need to be eradicated at all[, now] that is the problem" (p. 18; emphasis added).

Allowing us to own "the bad times and the good" also allow us to "praise you like I should" (Fatboy Slim, 1998). 

Sam

References:

Avamariedoodles. (2024, February 12). Beyond Toxic Positivity. https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe73a7974-1d72-44ea-922c-d96abca68c81_1080x1080.jpeg

Bhat, M. M., Hosseini, S., Hassan, A., Bennett, P., & Li, W. (2021, November). Say ‘YES’to positivity: Detecting toxic language in workplace communications. In Conference Proceedings, Findings of the Association for Computational Linguistics: EMNLP 2021 (pp. 2017-2029). https://aclanthology.org/2021.findings-emnlp.173.pdf

Ehrenreich, B. (2009). Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America. Metropolitan Books.

Fatboy Slim. (1998). Praise You. You've Come A Long Way Baby [CD]. Skint.

Grant, A. (2024, February 12). Beyond Toxic Positivity. Granted. https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=1285137&post_id=141578152&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=15zho&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxOTU4ODkyLCJwb3N0X2lkIjoxNDE1NzgxNTIsImlhdCI6MTcwNzY2OTg3NCwiZXhwIjoxNzEwMjYxODc0LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMTI4NTEzNyIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.iTFZpHNIEbdPZeHybxN9WgsNtRTepP4mmlLKqMF_ZTU

Moran, V., & Nadir, T. (2021). The Caustic Power of Excessive Positivity: How vocation and resiliency narratives challenge librarianship. ACRL 2021, Ascending into an Open Future, 13-16 April, online conference. https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/17590/moran_causticpowerofexcessivepositivity.pdf?sequence=1