Can we ever be too Positive? Let's talk about Toxic Positivity.

We never know how people are feeling, what's truly going on in someone's life, or the inner battles they may be facing.  

You can never truly know the pain someone may be going through, the hurt they've experienced, the challenges they've overcome, and what they may be healing from.  

Many of us put up walls, a veil to the world, and pretend we're just 'fine' - scared of the vulnerability's implication with saying 'we're not okay' and our mental health is suffering.  

We often invalidate our suffering by gaslighting ourselves - 'other people have it worse.'  

While gratitude is a positive action, we can often diminish the worth of the experiences or feelings by neglecting ourselves and our emotions.  

Stopping to process, allowing feelings, acknowledging how we feel, accepting loss, pain, or other more complex emotions helps us to heal.  

When we sit in discomfort, we grow.  

We've focused this article on Toxic Positivity in the Workplace for World Mental Health Day.  

Toxic positivity at its worst can diminish trust, negatively impact engagement and productivity, and hurt company culture, according to a recent Forbes article.  

Everyone should feel safe enough to talk about how they are feeling, and mental health needs to be a top priority for companies -  open communication allows for your employees to build trust and feel safe and supported, and ultimately, you're creating a culture of connection, collaboration,  emotional investment - critical things for a solid foundation for your company and people to thrive.  

Toxic positivity subjects people to not feeling they can open up and say what's on their mind and also minimizes creative and diverse thinking and ideas coming through. 

World Mental Health Day is an opportunity for us all to reflect on our wellbeing the wellbeing of others, and how we can improve both mental health in the workplace and personally.  

So, how can employers address toxic positivity in the workplace?  

For companies looking to address and tackle mental health at work, it's vital to create scalable and actionable steps towards improvements, what you want to achieve from a policy, how this will be deployed in your organization and the milestones you generate, and what success of your program looks like.  

One solution is to create a culture that allows for open and honest communication about emotions and challenges. This can include encouraging employees to share their experiences and struggles and providing support and resources to help them cope.  

It's also important to recognize and acknowledge the experiences and emotions of others rather than dismissing them or trying to "fix" them with positivity. 

In conclusion, while positivity can be good, excessive and forced positivity in the workplace can create problems and lead to a toxic work environment.  

Employers must recognize and address this issue and create a culture that values open and honest communication about emotions and challenges.  

By doing so, they can help create a more supportive and empathetic workplace that benefits everyone.