Why I'm not buying in to 'Brand Positivity'

What is Facebook’s most important question when hiring candidates? Here is the answer. The most important question is this: “On your very best day at work – the day you come home and think you have the best job in the world – what did you do that day?”
As million dollar questions go, you would be forgiven for hoping the sentence construction was a little more graceful, but the lack of elegance is far from the most sinister feature of such a question.


Before one could answer such a question, I think most of us would have to seriously consider whether we have ever had a day quite like this. As some-one who has had jobs I’ve loved and jobs I’ve hated, I can honestly say that I have never come home thinking I have the best job in the world. Neither can I think of a single best day: each day brings its own little victories and defeats. What is more, having interviewed candidates in the past, if I were going to ask a question like that I would be far more interested in hearing about their worst day. Nothing tests one’s metal more than screwing up and having to face the consequences of your mistake, or having a day where others belittle or frustrate your goals to such an extent that you could happily punch some-one in the face. The truth is, it is how we come back from failure and how we respond to setbacks that I believe distinguishes the good from the great.
By asking the question it does, Facebook will get people who can do great things on great days. They will find talented men and women willing to be sucked in to the hideous modern trend of ‘Brand Positivity.’ By this, I mean the tendency for corporations today to hire not just our minds and our labour, but our soul too. It’s not enough anymore to have a skill; it has to be combined with bagloads of enthusiasm. You have to live and breathe the brand, always being boldand willing to push your boundaries. People will tell you that nothing is impossible, and if it is, it’s just you and your negative mentality. At Facebook, you’ll even be given extra money if you are willing to relocate yourself to within 10 miles of the office: are you dedicated enough?
Facebook has bought wholeheartedly in to the concept of ‘Brand Positivity.’ It is clear that, when recruiting, it looks for people motivated by ever-greater self-mastery. It looks for people willing to let it become their life – their religion, their dinner party conversation and their source for self-validation – all in the belief that a positive mentality will carry them through.
That’s not reality.
Real people screw up. Real people have families, relationships, friendships and causes that they just might care about more than their job. Real people are, if they were being truly honest, often motivated by the money and the security when they apply for a job, and they aren’t in love with their potential employer. They don’t go to work with a sense of mission. Sometimes they have bad days where they can’t be bothered. But relentless positivity offers them nothing. It doesn’t accept that you can’t. It doesn’t accept that you don’t want to. It teaches you that when you can’t, you’re to blame. In short, it throws you to the wolves for being a flawed and fallible human being, much like the rest of us. IT makes negativity the workplace taboo.

That leads me to another important point. If negativity is taboo, how can we really be honest with ourselves? My real hatred of positive thinking comes from the deliberate denial of reality: let’s focus on the good and not the bad, or let’s gloss the bad so much that it becomes a new, distorted reality that comfortably fits our hegemonic paradigm. If you take that strategy and apply it to workplace recruitment, you run a very real risk of enforcing undesirable status quos, whether you bang the ‘diversity’ drum or not (many tech companies, Facebook included, do). Facebook may celebrate those people bolshy enough to approach a bigwig, proclaim their admiration and ask what they can do to help, but what about the many who simply wouldn’t have the guts to do such a thing? You see, I know a thing or too about diversity and where some of the best employers’ thinking is on this topic. It’s absolutely true that those employers whose workforce best reflects the society within which they exist do better, are more profitable and innovative. But don’t forget that the kind of people bold enough to chance their arm are likely to already possess the social and cultural capital that comes from a good education and an upbringing where education and striving for excellence are encouraged and rewarded. Most people don’t feel this enthused for any employer. The reason why certain groups are under-represented at the highest levels is that people continue to perceive that there are barriers to success, or at the very least that there is a successful type which they fall outside of. Unfortunately, if diversity really matters, we can’t shut our ears to negativity. Unless we really believe that women, ethnic minorities or disabled people really aren’t as good, we have to assume that there are structural obstacles for those groups to realise their potential. Those are likely to be intrinsically linked with negativity: either those groups do not believe that aspiring for the top will ever bear fruit, or they simply don’t value success in that way. Alternatively, it could be that our own biases and prejudices mean we inadvertently shut doors in people’s faces. This is why many of the most inclusive employers are willing to spend a lot of money putting their great and good through training programmes designed to help explore their often-unconscious biases.
In reality, what prevents some groups from being as successful is a complex subject and it probably comes down to a combination of all these factors. But if all you need to get anywhere is to be a go-getter, then we have to conclude that some social groups are innately better than other people, which is a pretty uncomfortable conclusion to reach.
If, however, we recognise that some people believe the top jobs are beyond them, whilst others see even the most humble aspirations of earning a decent wage in a decent job as being beyond their grasp, we can start instead to look honestly at why that is and what we can do to confront it. What the marginalised in our society need, more than anything, is hope: the belief that hard work is worth it because it will be recognised and rewarded. Hope, not positive thinking, allows those capable of great things to shine. Rather than a mantra that makes near-deities of the exceptional few, hope and aspiration fuel the simple desire to try one’s best, and our best is all any of us can do. Positive thinking is both tyrannical and destructive. Where it can only lead us to feel exhausted from never meeting a non-existent ideal, hope and aspiration are lasting. Where ‘Brand Positivity’ employers demand your heart and soul, employers that give people hope command their loyalty and respect. If I were a boss, I know which I’d prefer. So, to Facebook, thanks for the advice, but no thanks.