"Good Vibes Only" Is Not a Wellness Strategy

April Simpkins, SHRM-CP, PHR

June 19, 2025

"If your team always looks happy don't congratulate yourself just yet. They may not feel safe being anything else" April Simpkins — *"If your team always looks happy don't congratulate yourself just yet. They may not feel safe being anything else"* April Simpkins

Let’s be honest: most workplaces love a good inspirational quote.

“Teamwork makes the dream work.”

“Positive vibes only.”

“Leave your baggage at the door.”

Cute? Maybe.

Helpful? Not even a little.

The phrase “Good vibes only” sounds uplifting until you realize it often translates to: Don’t bring your full humanity in here. And that’s where we get it wrong. Because if your workplace culture makes people feel like they need to choose between being authentic and being accepted, they’ll almost always pick acceptance. And over time, that quiet self-betrayal becomes disengagement, burnout, and eventually, turnover.

The Danger in Demanding Sunshine

When we make positivity the default or worse, the requirement we create an environment where honesty feels unsafe. That doesn’t mean we need to host weekly crying circles or start all-staff meetings with group therapy. But it does mean we should make space for reality. For nuance. For the full range of human emotion that doesn’t always come dressed in gratitude and sparkle pens. And yes, I love glitter pens. But I also love honesty. Especially when things are hard.

Mental Health Isn’t a Mood. It’s a Metric.

We can’t keep treating wellness like it’s an aesthetic. A color scheme. A vibe.

Mental health at work is not about scented candles in the break room or wellness Wednesdays with fruit-infused water. Those things are nice, but they are not enough. If your team can’t say, “I’m struggling,” without fear of judgment, they aren’t well.

If your managers respond to stress with, “Just stay positive,” they aren’t leading, they’re avoiding. And here’s the wild part: most managers don’t even realize it.

Culture Is Built by What Leaders Tolerate

Let’s not overcomplicate this. Culture isn’t a slogan on the wall or a perks package. It’s shaped by what leaders:- Expect- Accept- Reward- Discipline

If you expect relentless optimism, that’s what people will give you even if it’s fake.
If you accept emotional suppression, that’s what they’ll learn.
If you reward the cheerleaders and subtly punish the quiet ones, your culture will skew performative.
And if you don’t see the harm in that… trust me, your employees do.

So What Should We Do?

Let people be human. That’s it. That’s the framework…Okay, not really it, but it’s the heart of the work.

Here’s what doing that looks like:

Train your leaders in psychological safety, hard conversations, and active listening.
Give employees language they can use when they’re not okay (and normalize using it).
Replace “fix it fast” leadership with “feel it first” compassion.
Sometimes the solution isn’t fixing the problem. It’s letting someone name it out loud.

For Leaders

If your team always looks happy, don’t congratulate yourself just yet. They may not feel safe being anything else. You don’t have to solve everyone’s emotional landscape, but you do need to create an environment where people don’t feel like they’ll be penalized for having an emotion. You don’t need to be a mental health expert. Just a safe person.

For Everyone Else

If you’re tired, you’re not alone. If you’re annoyed, you’re not wrong. If you’re constantly suppressing how you feel to “fit in,” you’re not okay and that’s okay to say. You don’t need to fake it. You don’t need to force it. You don’t need to frame your burnout as a growth opportunity. You need space to be real. That’s what trust is built on.

A Few Books Worth Reading

For Leaders:📖 "The Fearless Organization" by Amy Edmondson - A must-read if you want to understand how to create psychological safety and unlock real performance not just polished personas.

For Non-Leaders:📖 "Permission to Feel" by Dr. Marc Brackett - It’s not “soft” to feel things. It’s science. And this book gives you the tools to better understand and communicate your emotions at work and beyond.

For Everyone:

Listen below to Episode 3. of my podcast: The Dangers of Toxic Positivity

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Final Thought

“Good vibes only” was never a mental health policy. It was a sticker. Let’s retire it and replace it with something more human. Like: “Come as you are. We can handle it.” Because that’s where real engagement begins.