The Rise Of Therapy Speak At Work

From "Triggered" To "Setting Boundaries" And "Holding Space", Terms That Are Commonly Used During Counselling Sessions Have Infiltrated Our Everyday Vocabulary - But Do They Have A Space In The Workplace?

- BALVINDER SANDHU & CHERYL LAI-LIM

Imagine working in an environment that uses psychological terms and initiatives to show that the company cares for its employees' mental well-being. Sounds brilliant and progressive, doesn't it?

But what would you do if they were weaponised against you, and such terms were used to negatively affect the working environment instead?

Increased awareness of mental health concepts means many of us frequently use therapy terms that belong in a therapist's office in our everyday lives, and this includes the workplace.

Greta Huang* is a marketing professional at a business-to-consumer (B2C) company that emphasises psychological safety as a core pillar when building a high-performing team. There are even training sessions on what psychological safety at the workplace means, and how employees can apply its core values when building their teams.

She says that while the intent behind it "makes complete sense and is a nice goal to work towards", it has since become a blanket phrase for employees to misuse as a cover-up for bad behaviour. "Psychological safety" is also often used in a "tick box exercise" to show compliance with a company-wide mandate.

She gives the example of her manager declaring the office as a "safe space", but thereafter using it as an excuse to be overly aggressive or rude, while justifying the behaviour as being honest and authentic. Team members are regularly embarrassed or humiliated in front of peers, and punished for making mistakes or taking risks. This, she says, does not create an environment of psychological safety.