The Tyranny Of Positivity At Work
I’ve always been suspicious of Positivity in the workplace. It’s always seemed like a scam.
I’ve recently started meditating, exercising, eating healthier and reading Self Improvement books that have all given me a more positive outlook on life.
There are undoubtedly benefits, that I am experiencing myself, to a Positive Outlook on life. Smiling more *will* make you feel happier. Accepting that failure is part of the path to success is important to achieving anything without becoming demoralised. Finding new opportunities by looking for rules that have changed and nobody else has noticed yet is a viable strategy for innovation.
And yet I’m still cynical. I call it ‘cynicism’ but I think it’s a gut emotion that has been formed from bitter experience of Positivity being used as a weapon against me, in the various corporate workplaces where I’ve spent my career.
In these workplaces Positivity gets used as a kind of Gaslighting, a form of bullying. The kinds of people who insist on Positivity are the same people who enjoy making unreasonable commitments for other people to keep, typically salespeople and managers. Throwaway promises, made without discussion or contemplation, combined with a refusal to acknowledge bad news, let alone pass it on to a customer or their manager.
“Yes, Customer, we’ll get that to you by tomorrow.”
“Yes, Customer, I’m sure we can do that for free.”
They happily write these cheques that they know they personally will never have to cash. They don’t care that the overdrafts have to be covered by their colleagues.
When you complain that it can’t be done, they repeat trite positivity quotes at you:
“Edison failed 9,999 times before he succeeded.”
Yes, but Edison’s boss hadn’t sold a billion units to be delivered by next Tuesday, before they even knew if they had a solution.
“Stop being negative. You could be working on it now instead of complaining that it’s impossible.”
Yes, I could, but actually the laws of physics haven’t changed this afternoon, so it’s still impossible, just like it was this morning, so it wouldn’t be a good use of my time, as I’m trying to tell you.
And with these people, it always seems to be “we” when we’re winning, and “me” when we are failing.
Positivity can undoubtedly be a good tool.
But good tools can also be used for bad purposes, by bad people.
Next time someone tells you to “cheer up”, or “be positive” in the workplace, mentally step back and consider if you’re being Gaslighted. And if you are, ask yourself if this workplace is a safe place to be.
