On 3rd March 2023, Times of India, a newspaper, flashed a news with a heading ‘Toxic body positivity: Ranbir Kapoor says actors are starved, unhappy, and pained, do not eat enough.’ Ranbir Kapoor is a young popular actor in Indian cinema. He spoke about this during an event to promote his film ‘Tu Jhooti Main Makkar.’
A thought immediately passed my mind. What about the common man. And what about millions of workers all over the world. Aren’t they also victims of toxic positivity in one way or the other, at workplace and elsewhere. And what can be done about it.
Toxic positivity is forced cheerfulness that can lead to mental health problems, including burnout.
Ranbir Kapoor went on to say that actors today are unhappy and pained because they starve themselves to look in a certain way. The pressure to look glamourous and cool on actors makes them fake their emotions when in reality they are unhappy.
If the pressure to behave or look in a certain way continues unabated, it can lead to mental health problems, including burnout. And toxic positivity is all about that. It is forced cheerfulness.
The actors are answerable to the public. They can do little about it. For the actors and the public alike, toxic positivity (TP) is an occupational hazard that must be mitigated to ALARP (as low as reasonably practicable) so that harm to body and mind is minimal.
Toxic Positivity has givers and receivers. The givers must realize that they are creating a workplace that will eventually engulf them as well. Hence, each one of us should refrain from remarks that propagate toxic positivity.
Comments such as ‘good vibes only’ or ‘you are bringing everyone down’ or ‘chin up’ at workplace when you are having a bad day is an experience of toxic positivity.
Incidentally, TP comes from a well-meaning source and is usually unintended but can have disastrous consequences for a workplace.
In TP, there are givers who create the culture and there are receivers who get immediately affected. The givers must realize that they are creating a place that will eventually become negative and engulf them as well. Hence each one of us should refrain from remarks that propagate TP.
Creating an awareness about toxic positivity can be a wellness initiative for all employees including leaders because if left uncontrolled can lead to stress and other mental health problems.
If a business has to succeed, everyone in the workplace, right from top to bottom should be mindful of toxic positivity and refrain from comments that invalidate negative emotions in their colleagues.
This pressure to show only ‘good side of yourself’ can backfire, making people feel less safe, less positive, less connected, less resilient; eventually damaging the workforce morale and the business.
Creating an awareness about toxic positivity can be a wellness initiative because if left uncontrolled can lead to stress and other mental health problems. It should involve everyone including the leaders.
Being positive is not toxic, but suppressing an emotion or getting a demoralising response makes it toxic. If TP at workplace is not recognised and addressed, it can lead to trauma, isolation and unhealthy coping mechanism in a lot of employees that will be detrimental for the business.
Even if optimism is a great idea, one cannot be forever happy. At workplace, many people feel they have to be happy as it is the expectation of the surrounding. If you realize that you are expected to hide your true emotions and be positive all the time even if you are not, then it is time to learn to manage the expectation urgently.
One should feel the negative emotions instead of suppressing them. When you suppress negative emotions instead of feeling them because it is an expectation of your family, friends, colleagues or seniors to be positive all the time, you are in a state of toxic positivity.
Positivity is beneficial to health and mental well-being; toxic positivity is detrimental.
The reason why workplaces give so much importance to positivity that it becomes toxic has a historical story. However, we will not go into the history. Instead, focus on how to manage toxic positivity.
Since toxic positivity is stressful and eventually leads to burnout, inputs from an Occupational Health (OH) physician should help. While managing mental health, it is important to talk about toxic positivity and the senior management should be sensitised about it.
The fact is that in this mad world of social media, everyone faces toxic positivity because we fall prey to the expectation of others. One who sets the expectation and creates TP is the giver while the recipient is to whom it is intended. The environment of TP can be subtle or outrageous depending on circumstances.
TP is an expectation initiated by someone to a recipient who becomes a victim. The victim is expected to always stay positive and hide negative feelings which leads to stress. In a workplace setting, the senior management or the supervisor should avoid initiating an expectation of being forever positive and the recipient should resist from being affected. This is possible only when both the initiator of TP and its recipient understand that it is good to be positive but expecting too much positivity always is not possible as everyone has a bad day.
Five signs of TP:
- Feeling guilty for getting angry or upset on others
- Hiding true feeling
- Scolding people who are not positive
- Invalidating emotions of others
- Dismissal of all feeling that are negative
Just imagine if this was a workplace culture. How stifled and tense would you feel. Eventually such a workplace will lead to burnout in most of the workers.
How does toxic positivity harm:
- Can lead to feelings of shame
- Can also cause feelings of guilt
- It avoids real human emotion
- Increases stress
- Reduces well-being
- Delays or halts progress in life, generally
How can you cope with toxic positivity:
- Being realistic
- Challenge the person who incites toxic positivity
- Do not hesitate to speak to your coach, mentor or therapist
- Encourage others to express feelings
- Have empathy for others
- Solve the problem rather than ignore it
- Be aware that it is normal to have occasional negative emotions
What business owners can do:
- Create safe and comfortable spaces
- Be honest and transparent
- Make well-being a priority
Positivity is beneficial to health and mental well-being; toxic positivity is detrimental. Toxic positivity at workplace has to be dealt at multiple levels of hierarchy as organizations are seldom flat.
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Dr Ajay Sati is an Occupational Health physician who prefers to describe himself as an Occupationist, to denote, ‘an expert in diseases and other concerns of occupations’. Dr Sati has managed health and wellness programs in indus tries he worked, like the atomic energy, and energy (oil & gas) in India and overseas. An experienced virtual consultation expert he was involved in many greenfield and brownfield projects providing inputs from health point of view.
