The Slack notification pinged, a little red ‘1’ glaring at you from the corner of the screen. Your project is on fire, the team is down by two, and you just scrolled past a passive-aggressive email from someone who clearly thinks ‘synergy’ is a synonym for ‘magic wand.’ Your breath hitches. You take a deep, shaky breath, force a smile you can almost feel twisting your facial muscles, and type out: ‘No problem at all! Happy to jump in and help get this across the finish line!’ Your eye twitches, just a tiny, involuntary spasm, a minor rebellion in the grand theatre of enforced cheerfulness.
That twitch? That’s the real cost. That’s the hidden tax of emotional labor at work, a burden so pervasive, so deeply normalized, that we often don’t even recognize it as a separate chore.
It’s not just about being polite, or even about genuine teamwork. Let’s be brutally honest for a moment, even if it feels a little rebellious to say. The relentless demand for constant ‘positivity’ and unwavering ‘professionalism’ isn’t primarily about cultivating a truly good, psychologically safe environment. More often than not, it’s an unspoken job requirement to absorb, manage, and silently process organizational dysfunction, internal chaos, and poor leadership decisions without so much as a murmur of genuine complaint. It’s a mechanism for keeping the lid on a simmering pot, maintaining an illusion of control and harmony while crucial issues fester underneath.


























































