The Emotion Missing From the Workplace

the “tyranny of positivity” dominates most workplaces.

“There’s an unspectacular mundane suffering that pervades the workplace,” Kanov told me. “But we don’t feel allowed to acknowledge that we suffer. We endure way more than we should, and can, because we downplay what it’s actually doing to us.”

Certain kinds of distress are more socially acceptable to express at work than others, Kanov said via email. It’s okay to openly grieve the death of a spouse or parent, but much riskier to share the struggles of a breakup, office politics, or financial worry, for example. The bereavement expert Kenneth Doka calls these losses—the kind we feel we ha... See more

In a business culture that once demanded positivity, a new set of norms is slowly emerging.