Are the British workforce lazy or is it the case that the British are over-worked, under paid, taxed at every corner, debt pouring from every orifice, stress at home, stress at work, all in the name of existential survival? Is it the case that the use of the ‘black dress code’ serves to aid further depression as city workers line the platforms, tubes and buses, looking like they’re attending a daily funeral breakfast?

Lisa-Jane Merridue, executive transpersonal coach:

Does the blackness inhibit you?
Is it a subconscious reminder of the ‘black hole’ along with feelings of being pulled through a monochrome world? Powerless in a world of power dressing? Added to this is the Times, Guardian, Telegraph, Independent, open in waves across the travelling sector, heads down in books, eyes shut with the white ear pieces pertaining to the iPod uniform. Where is the chipper good morning, the smile, the nod of the head or the tip of a hat? What is this fear of eye contact and communication? We are not in George Orwell times just yet? We are not going to get mugged because we smile or say hello, yet we are deemed odd if we do. No excuse me’s or thank you’s, please or do you mind? And all in the knowledge that if you get mugged the suits will race past you, to get to the next platform, or to get where they’re going to…to give an example, years ago a heavily pregnant secretary from the London College of Art was making her way across a London station and passed out. She awoke, not to find help, oh no, but a man in a pinstripe suit stepping over her rushing for his train! Dear, dear.

But to take a look on a different level at black it means: “look at me but don’t invade my space”, so on the tubes and trains, being squashed with no space to move, papers, books, iPods etc allow a person some individual private space, while trying to maintain autonomy with one’s true self not the one they are forced into. If you watch men on their way home, as they pull away from the city, their heads go back with their eyes closed, a deep breath and the hand is up removing the tie, unbuttoning their top buttons, a large exhale of the day’s work, and a kind of relief as they retrieve their personal autonomy. Caged animals?

We could take another angle…black is the absence of light. Black and white is just the presence or absence of light. So, if we begin to look at light and how it affects us - it is possible to see that it becomes a matter of personal responsibility. Different work ethos and new ways of making staff work more efficiently are constantly being tried out. Once upon a time computer areas were littered with woolly sticky things with googly eyes and personal messages, teddies and photos - another attempt at autonomy. However recent practices of depersonalising work space in the name of productivity have come in leaving people feeling they are sat in cubicles like animals in the zoo. Man as a social creature does not want to be stripped of his identity and left pacing in his work cage. Working like this may well lend itself to frustration, depression and more sick days. Animals in zoos are driven mad by not being allowed to be true to their nature. The irritability shown among the animals and the turning upon one another is self-evident. Is this mirrored by the seemingly increasing bullying in the workplace for the same reasons? 

Work to live or live to work?
Mid-life crisis, London burnout - does it all follow a recurring theme of distortion by the way the nation is forced to live? If the national average wage is 24k and 90% of the workforce earn less than £46k (source: BBC2 What Britain Earns) is it any wonder we as a nation have got problems? The question that springs to mind is: “does what you earn affect the value of what you do?” With the majority working to live we have also seen an increasing number of people choosing to embrace life over working - so with these earning capacities you might as well work at something you enjoy.

Concrete jungle vs enlightenment
Information Super Highway has changed all our lives incredibly. Many people do not ‘work’ but sit all day in front of screens awaiting results. I do not say this in a derogatory fashion but in the sense that the human body is designed for physical endurance but how often does it get tasked? So while the brain is tired from its daily workout the body’s needs tend not to have been met. While we have seen gym memberships become part of benefits packages will it be the case that fitness testing will become a part of your interview alongside aptitude tests and psychological profiling? 

An empathetic and monotonous workforce where we have complacently become synchronized cogs in a timepiece combined with a pressured lifestyle continues to stifle the creative side of the brain. Man as the hunter gatherer has lost, in a lot of ways, his primeval instincts. When a man picks up a piece of wood and notes the shape, the feel of the bark, the smell, the grain, he begins a relationship with mother earth and what she has provided that he may survive. To pick up tools to measure, to saw, to carve, to work out how to make dovetail joints for a chest of draws, he has truly worked his body and brain and most importantly he has been creative and honed a sense of lasting accomplishment.

The countryside has seen ‘the London fallout,’ as has the seaside towns – ‘the sea change,’ where people are seeking a more harmonious and sympathetic lifestyle to their true needs and desires. Both providing vast open spaces, colour, an ability to breathe, a sense of freedom and light, unlike the concrete jungle where there is virtually no light, just grey and diffused. These spaces allow one to re-connect to nature and her seasons, to desensitize and feel one’s own rhythm, nature and nurture allowing itself to play out in one role. Food for the soul.

Time for change 
Herein lays the foundation of change to balance, what will you do this new year to nourish your soul? I shall be moofing - another new concept of greater productivity – mobile out of the office. This means I can work from home, sit in my office overlooking the lake, and take inspiration in a truly beautiful and relaxed, unpressured environment. I can take care of any home or personal business without taking time off and remain efficient and true to my nature thus by taking care of all aspects. I can live life and have a healthy appetite for work. So how will you effect life changes that will make you relaxed with 'your lot in life', feel a greater cope-ability and a greater sense of wellbeing?

Click on the discussion thread: Health and wellbeing: Jack in the box if you want to share your opinion

For more information on Lisa-Jane Merridue, email: ljmerridue91@yahoo.co.uk