Grave therapy! South Korean companies shut employees in coffins
And the aim is to teach them(employees) the value of life.
The lesson is needed because workers often report feeling stressed which explains why South Korea has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
The pretend funerals, as they call it, requires workers, dressed in white robes, to write final letters to their loved ones.
Then they are shown videos of people in adversity making the most of their lives after which they’d get into wooden coffins and lie down.
“As they look up, the boxes are banged shut by a man dressed in black with a tall hat. He represents the Angel of Death. Enclosed in darkness, the employees reflect on the meaning of life,” BBC reports.
The process is expected to change the participants’ perspective of life.
“I thought going inside a coffin would be such a shocking experience it would completelyreset their minds for a completely fresh start in their attitudes,” Park Chun-woong whose employees have participated in the session said.
It seems to be effective, at least according to Cho Yong-tae.
“After the coffin experience, I realised I should try to live a new style of life,” says Cho as he emerges from the casket. “I’ve realised I’ve made lots of mistakes. I hope to be more passionate in all the work I do and spend more time with my family.”
South Korea has the highest rate of suicide in the industrialised world and the authorities know it. ‘Pretend funeral’ is one of the ways, they hope, to reverse that situation.
The Seoul city government, in 2014, instituted a siesta allowing employees to nap for an hour during the day. They however had to compensate for the nap time by either getting to work and hour earlier or leaving an hour later..
