As workplaces become more diverse, HR pros need to be aware of the ever widening range of religions and cultures among employees. But learning that is nothing compared to understanding what happened at a factory in Indonesia.
Imagine this: It seems to be a normal workday. Nothing unusual, until, one by one, workers in adjoining cubicles stop their work and go into a trance.
(Some of you are already saying, “That happens here regularly.” But this is something slightly different – read on.)
Reports of factory workers going into mass trances or speaking in tongues are common across Indonesia.
In one well-documented incident in a cigarette factory in Malang, dozens of women were affected.
Lidia Laksana Hidajat, a researcher at a university in Jakarta, says the women were hand-rolling cigarettes in silence when one worker started screaming and her body went stiff.
Then, it was like a domino effect. One after another, women starting screaming or crying and their bodies went rigid.
Eventually, the exhausted women fell asleep and when they awoke, they remembered nothing.
Hidajat says the cause was most likely exhaustion and stress.
Many of the women believe they are possessed by evil spirits during the trances. Hidajat dismisses that notion.
While the factory cases are among the best documented, the mass trances have happened in other places.
Just last year, more than 30 high school students fell into a trance and blamed a spirit.
The school’s deputy principal posits another explanation.
“They are bored, tired and then this happened,” she said. “They all got a day off school.”
Lest any of your employees get their hands on this story and try their own mass trance, you should know that these incidents are limited to cultures where there is a widespread acceptance of the supernatural.
