Well-dying/Mock Funerals

[tangomonster]

I think it's great that people take the time and put the effort into reflecting about their lives, but does anyone else think that this is not that meaningful and kind of over the top?

Mock funerals give 'dearly departed' new outlook on life - CNN.com

It seems that Koreans are "enjoying" a new service in which they pay up to $35 for a fake funeral, complete with 15 minutes in a csket while they reflect on their past and plan for a better future.

And---reason #527 for FIRE---it seems that employers are using this as a way to improve job performance:

Some leading companies see the service as a way of improving job performance. Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's largest firm, sent 900 workers in 2006 from its factory in Gumi, 160 miles southeast of Seoul.
The experience makes workers more efficient, said Kim Hee-jin, a personnel manager at the Gumi plant, which makes mobile phones, computer printers and fax machines.

May not be long until US companies adopt this! And here I thought it couldn't get any worse than listening to Who Moved My Cheese? and having to act like it was so profound....

 

[theHundt]

I don't know about mock funerals, but when my dad turned 50 awhile back I had the idea to travel to the area where he grew up and lived for 40+ years and do video interviews with all of his friends as if they were speaking of him after he had passed. Since him and my mom had not lived in the area or really seen any of their friends there for over 5 years, I thought it would be a nice fun way to reconnect . As many of my ideas go though, it was great in the creative stages, but lacked follow through in the execution. I was also a bit afraid that it would have the opposite effect that I intended and make dad really sad. The chances of that were low, but not worth the risk in the end.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Bwahahahaha.

The idea of a company saying "We think we have an idea to improve your job performance. Here. Lay in this casket for 15 minutes and reflect on your past"... is....just entirely hilarious.



Wait until Jon Stewart gets a whiff of this...

 

[HFWR]

Casket...cubicle...casket...cubicle...

 

[free4now]

I've actually done this mock-funeral exercise twice with various personal growth groups out here in California. Most people had realizations along the lines of the cliche'd "nobody on their deathbed ever said they wish they'd spent more time at the office".

The Koreans would have to do some pretty strong brainwashing to get people to think their life mission was to work harder at the office.

 

[Meadbh]

"Real death is totally different than this," said Chung Jae-hyun, a board director at the Korea Association of Thanatology, a Seoul-based group of academics who study death-related issues.

How would he/she know?

 

[CyclingInvestor]

I think the exercise would just emphasize that 'death' is the only thing that ranks
below 'work' as what I want to do for the next 20 years.

Casket...cubicle...casket...cubicle...

This brought up a picture in my mind of what caskets would look like nowadays
if they were a company provided benefit - low walls, no top, and 'shared' if you
below a certain level.

 

[Redbugdave]

I don't think the mock funerals would fly too well in America because of our culture...If my workplace provided one for me I would laugh along and say, "5 years and counting". Not that I don't say it anyway...