5 ms·
This has kind of been a problem at my workplace. Everything from the company's marketing material to its recruiting practices exudes an almost overwhelming amou
by Trasmatta 6y ago
This has kind of been a problem at my workplace. Everything from the company's marketing material to its recruiting practices exudes an almost overwhelming amount of positivity. They put a huge emphasis on hiring "the nicest people in the world". Disagreements or arguments at the company are almost non-existent, because everyone tries their hardest to be positive and nice at all times. Every other sentence in Slack ends with an emphatic exclamation point (or two or three) and / or a smiley face.
I like my job, and I will gladly take it over a workplace with toxic negativity, but it's still been somewhat exhausting. There's that underlying anxiety that if you're somehow not seen as exuding the correct level of positivity, that you might get let go.
Everyone at the company is constantly patting themselves on the back about how it's "the greatest place to work in the world" and that they have "the most incredible co-workers". This makes it hard to disagree with things or point out things that aren't working, because everyone is so afraid to hurt somebody's feelings.
- halfmatthalfcat 6y agoIt's hilarious during interviews when everyone says "I've never worked at a company like this", "I've never worked with a team like this, truly the best"...I roll my eyes...
- Trasmatta 6y agoI've worked at multiple companies where the interviewers will say stuff like "we have the best engineering team in the world!", and then you get hired and look at their codebase...
- ryandrake 6y agoIt’s often a facade too! I’ve heard privately at one employer the statement “We all outwardly sing Kum-ba-ya and hold each other’s hands but everyone has razor blades in their palms and they hold hands pretty hard...”
- jcelerier 6y ago> Everything from the company's marketing material to its recruiting practices exudes an almost overwhelming amount of positivity. I don't know if it's because I'm french but that kind of thing makes me throw up in my mouth and is a super big turn-off. Some things sucks, it's fine, accept it and move on or try to make them better through actions. Words don't make things better.
- Trasmatta 6y agoI don't have any hard evidence for this, but it seems to me that this fake positivity is a lot more prevalent in the US than in Europe
- mbrodersen 6y agoI agree 100% having lived, worked, and paid taxes in Denmark, England, Scotland, the US, and Australia. It is a very US thing.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tluyben2 6y agoYep, it is a US thing and, as eu resident, I find it incredibly annoying. Everything is GREAT always, until it isn't (aka when it all collapses and it becomes obvious) and I am negative for pointing out that reality 'spoiling the good atmosphere'.
- hntrader 6y ago> I will gladly take it over a workplace with toxic negativity Agree, having a colleague with a negative disposition (< 3rd percentile of general population) is in my view much, much worse than colleagues that exude the normal amount of fake positivity, even though the latter is annoying and draining and is more deceitful than the former.
- Trasmatta 6y agoYeah, that's basically where I'm at. It's irritating sometimes, but my stress levels are much lower than places I've worked with a negative atmosphere, so I will live with it.
- gxqoz 6y agoI've been converted to using exclamation points after phrases like "thanks" in emails. The book Because Internet convinced me that the rules of email politeness have changed. I don't love it, but whatever. Language changes.
- Trasmatta 6y agoIt's interesting how different the following four uses of "thanks" can come across, depending on the context: thanks Thanks. Thanks Thanks!