There is a debate going on about whether or not “mindfulness” can and should be used in the workplace. Some businesses have begun mindfulness training in an effort, maybe, to address the high rate of disengagement among America’s 100M full time employees. Some say that this training is nothing more than corporate America’s effort to sustain its unsustainable bottom line. In the article “Corporate America’s New Productivity Hack: Meditation,” Joe Pinsker interviews David Gelles, a business reporter for the New York Times and author of Mindful Work about the use of mindfulness, born out of the Eastern practice of emptying the mind, in service to the forces of capitalism (increased production and the bottom line).
Nowhere in the interview does Pinsker address the root cause of workplace misery; nor does he suggest that low productivity, and in some cases, no productivity, may be connected to a planetary shift. There are other concerns that I have, such as Gelles’ emphasis and dependence on the quantitative research on mindfulness to convince Pinsker that the use of it in the workplace is “scientific” and not a “new age” fad. Again, neither Gelles nor Pinsker realize that “science” can be used to support the separation or to call for an end to it. It all depends on consciousness and the “belief” system of the scientist. We manufacture the evidence for our beliefs.
Most all of Gelles’ reponses to Pinksker’s questions assume the belief in separation. In this case, Gelles, and maybe Pinksker too, fail to see the interconnectedness, or relationship, of the American workplace and American employees with the call from all over the planet to end misery, suffering and discord. Well at least, that’s my take on it. Here is the link to the article so that you can derive your own conclusions. In the meantime, if you are an employee who is being introduced to mindfulness training, it can’t hurt you, but it is not going to make you more productive. Mindfulness cannot override this shift; nor can it make what is unsustainable, sustainable. It’s just that simple.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/corporations-newest-productivity-hack-meditation/387286/ Our own life has to be our message. ~ Thich Nhat Hahn, Vietnamese Buddhist Monk and author of The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
