It’s no secret that meditation is good for you. It is known to counter the harmful effects of stress and lessen the threat of burnout. It increases introspection and gives your mind a chance to ‘recharge.’ All of this, completely free of charge, from the comfort of your floor, couch, or chair.

It’s really not surprising that big corporations have jumped onto the mindfulness bandwagon with gusto, because sneaky integration of mindfulness practices into the workplace allow corporate to keep workers docile and unable to rebel against unfair and abusive workplace practices.

Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash

1.Meditation pins the burden of stress and burnout solely on the employee. If you are stressed at work, it becomes your job to make yourself less stressed. It is not the duty of the company to fix the conditions that lead to a stressful work environment.

2. Meditation is a band-aid that helps mask unfair labor practices. Companies feel like offering meditation/mindfulness training to employees is a perk and thus implies they are good to their employees. The reality is a tad different, since a lot of perks offered at jobs are essentially unrelated to work/life balance, pay, or other job conditions.

3. Meditation costs the company nothing but your time, which they clearly do not value anyways. If they really cared about your time why not send people home early instead of encouraging/forcing mindfulness training? People could then choose to do what they wanted, whether or not that time included mindfulness or meditation.

4. Meditation can be torn away from its religious and mystical roots and rewired as a part of the cult of capitalism. Meditation is an ancient practice that is primarily associated with Buddhism, though it has been used by members of other religions as well as a way of communing with the divine or perfecting the self. Its spiritual meaning can be stripped away, however, and molded to whatever purpose corporations see fit. Productivity is the name of the game in our society, so rather than as a mechanism to reach the cessation of craving and thus cessation of suffering meditation can instead be used to boost productivity by lessening stress and pressure, all in the name of greed.

5. Meditation is usually marketed as a quiet, solo activity. This means there is a bit less danger of workers sharing information or working together to improve their conditions.

None of this is meant to imply that mindfulness and meditation is bad. It is a powerful spiritual tool and method of self improvement, something that should be a part of everyone’s life. It is, however, extremely vulnerable to manipulation by the unethical and powerful and thus should be viewed with a critical eye when pushed by obviously moneyed interests, lest it be used in ways that are damaging to our selves and our society.