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HRM 4075
Unconscious at work
Student: Jingjing Li M00509608
Tutor: Elizabeth
As we know, Freud is interested in the unconscious at the beginning of his
psychoanalytical researches. According to Prado de Oliveira (2005), “Freud
even compare the relationship between the unconscious and conscious to the
relation that exists between positive and negative when a photo is developed.”
Firstly, let us just think about what is the unconscious and the conscious. The
unconscious is a mental activity which we are unaware of but it also can be
effect on our behaviour (Arnaud, 2004); however, the conscious can enhance
our basic living work process. In another word, the unconscious can drive us
to act; but the conscious can drive us to make a decision, have a choice, give
a considerate reason (Jaques, 2003). In my opinion, the conscious is based
on the unconscious, people shape their own cognitive with the power of the
unconscious. After that, the conscious will guide people to make a decision .
We need to learn the unconscious because it is important to our living work

process. Today, I will give you a case study which is about a workplace
observation. I will summarise the main themes and ideas raised in the
workplace observation. After that, I will discuss and analyse my observation in
order to explain the unconscious at work.
On 28th
October 2014, I visited an employment tribunal which is located at
Victory House, 30-34 Kingsway. I went there early, so I just waited outside. I
saw a lot of people there, all of them dressed up such as black suits.
Suddenly, I was attracted by an old woman who wore a red dress and also a
red hand bag with her. Basically, almost all of the old women would prefer
dark colours. Or people would dress red colour in their very important days
such as Wedding Day, Christmas Day. Perhaps, they were super stars so that
they would wear bright colours to distinct from the ordinary people. When I
went to London to do my pre-sessional English course, I wrote an essay
which topic was about the semiotics. The colour of red means passion or
danger or angry (Branston and Stafford, 1996, p.10). So I was interested with

this old woman. Because of her difference, I really wanted to know who she
was and what was the main reason she was wearing like this. Was there
anything unfair with her or she had a strong conflict with anyone else?
When the case started, I read the statements carefully. The claimant was the old woman who
worked in House of Fraser before. From her statement, I found that she worked there for a long
time and also she was an experienced worker. Although the company made a lot of unfair rules
and treated employees extremely harsh, she did her job without any complains. One day when she
was working, a lot of policemen came in and asked her a lot of questions which she never heard
about. After that, they asked her to take part in an investigation. The reason why she should be
investigated was that they found someone stole 48 products from the company and sold them on
eBay. The address was the claimant’s ex flat. She denied it but she cannot find any evidence to
prove her innocence. The investigation took a long time, she felt the most pressure and finally she
was ill. She got a depression so that it made her cannot work as usual. When she had this bad
condition, the company did not care about her feeling and fired her because of this main reason.
She thought this was an unfair dismissal. On the other hand, from the respondents’ statements, I
found that the claimant did something wrong. When she was investigated, she told lies and did not
want to be investigated to prove her innocence. For instance, she was absent sometimes without
any notice. When the policemen asked her about the address and telephone number, she denied
and said she did not know the address and the telephone number at all. In fact, she knew them
because she lived there before and also the telephone number was her ex-husband’s. Her ex-
husband lived in this address as well. She contacted her ex-husband immediately when she was
investigated but she denied either. So the company thought she did some bad thing and she should
be fired because of her lies and the huge loss from this incident.
Honestly speaking, I did not went to any tribunal before. On one hand, we only have courts in
China. On the other hand, I did not have any experience about tribunal observation. So I looked at
the setting and the room carefully. The setting was a bright room, clean and quiet. Outside the
window, there was the main road which is named Kingsway. A lot of people and cars and also

buses there but I cannot hear any noises. The room was divided into three parts. The first part was
in the front of the room. The chairman Mr AJ Spencer sat in the middle, facing the claimant, the
respondents, lawyers and all the visitors. There were a lot of law books beside him which put on
the desk. He came there earlier than others and sat there to read the case carefully. The second part
was the main part. There were three sets of tables and chairs with glass of water. The left one was
for the respondents. The representative was a woman who sat left and the lawyer sit right. The
middle one was close to the respondents and the claimant. No one sit there at first. The right one
was for the claimant. The claimant sit left and dressed a striking red coat and also her bag was red.
Her lawyer sat right. The last part was for visitors. All the visitors cannot have a chance to see the
claimant and the respondents face-to-face. There were three people who came from the company
sit in the front. Their position was just behind the representative and lawyer. All the people were
dressed-up. But all of them were dressed with black or dark colour except the claimant. Even
though the representative was a woman who was younger than the claimant, she dressed grey one.
I was really surprised with the claimant bright colour.
The process of this case was really interesting. It was divided into two sections. At first, the
chairman read the case before the claimant and the respondents came into the room. When he
prepared it well, he asked the clerk to invite the claimant and the respondents to come in and have
a sit. Then the chairman asked some questions about the statements. Most of questions were about
the claimant. The claimant did not answer any question by herself. Her lawyer whispered to her to
confirm. After that, her lawyer answered the chairman and also asked the chairman about the
statements which came from the respondents. The lawyer of respondents answered them. Both of
the lawyers made a lot of notes and so does the chairman. Their voice was so low and also they
spoke quickly. I cannot hear what they said. It took nearly an hour. After that, the chairman
claimed that it would have a break and each of them could read the statement carefully. After forty
minutes, it began again. The respondents came to sit in the middle chair one by one which was
close to the respondents and the claimant. Before they sit, they would swear seriously about that
they would not tell lies and they would tell truth. When they sit, the lawyer of the claimant asked
them a lot of questions and argued with them. The respondents answered questions and tried their
best to control their tempers. Their voice was so loud, especially the lawyer of claimant. It showed

that there was a big sharp conflict with them. Sometimes the lawyer of the respondents would
involve in their argument to explain it and asked the chairman to stop it and control the rule. It
took about one hour.
It was a pity that I cannot see their face especially their expressions. But I can feel that all of
them were serious and both sides thought they were right, and the other was wrong. So at the first
part, They listened carefully and wrote down what they heard, it was the conscious part. But they
asked question carefully and read the statement carefully in order to find the others’ flaw in the
statement, it should be an unconscious part. I can see what they were doing and also I can hear
what they spoke; however, I cannot know what they were thinking and what they would do and
also what strategy they would use. All the things I can see and I can hear is the conscious and the
other one which I could not catch up with is the unconscious. The process about the first stage was
looked like that it was peaceful, but in fact, it was not. They spoke so low because they did not
want the other to know what they would do and what their strategy of this case was. They took
notes to make them find the others’ flaws quickly and it would save a lot of time when they read
again. From this part, we can find some evidence about what the unconscious worked. After 40
minutes’ break, their attitude was changed a lot. The lawyer of the claimant spoke louder than
before, asked a lot of direct questions to the respondents. Using the sentences such as “Give me
evidence!”, “Are you sure?”, “Look at your statement……you said that……but……how did you
know?”, “Why you said that, give me suitable explanation”. His face turned left in order to make
sure it was a face to face talking, so I can see his face. He looked so confident. On the other hand,
the respondents always said “She was a liar”, “It was not true.” In fact, I can feel that the
respondents felt bad but they tried to control their bad tempers. Sometimes they could not answer
immediately. Meanwhile, the lawyer of the respondents would asked the chairman to stop the
lawyer of the claimant keeping going to ask some questions which was not direct. I can feel that
the respondents were worried about it. They did not realise their anxious and their performance
was so bad. Even though, they wanted to do their best and also they wanted to prove the
claimant’s guilty. The chairman took a lot of notes and listened carefully. He should control the
situation and kept the case going on. His face did not change a lot and he looked calm. Because of
the huge difference about the claimant, I paid attention to her. The claimant did not say any words.

Just sit there languorous. It looked like she fell asleep or it was not her business. The
representative did not say any words as well.
When I finished my observation, I made some notes. From the claimant’s statement, I can feel
that she wanted to prove that the company treated their employees unfair; she was not satisfied
with this company for a long time.From the respondents’ statements, I can feel that they wanted to
prove that the claimant did a lot of wrong things before; she always had a lot of excuses about her
absent and also she did not work in a positive way. She had not any loyalty with the company.
They were not satisfied with her as well. I missed their expression. And also I spent a long time to
read their statements to understand the case well, but I missed their conversation a bit.Two weeks
later, I took part in a workplace supervision which supervised by Elizabeth Cotton. As we know,
workplace supervisions are a mechanism used in clinical mental health settings in order to get the
key points and unconscious communications. Each person was asked to present their report and
after that the group reflected on the content. I found that each person presented different report
even though their observations were the same case. It was a good experience for us because it can
help us to understand the whole case well and also we can find out our strength and our weakness
for observation. Generally speaking, in order to know how does the unconscious work, we need to
draw attention to people expression and their voice and also their body language. According to
Freud and others discovered, there are hidden aspects oh human mental life which influence
conscious processes. He believed he could illustrate the existence of the unconscious which
usually comes from dreams, slips of tongue, mistakes and so on as evidence of meaningful mental
life of which we are not aware ( Halton, 1994). The fact is that workplace observation is a good
way to get the idea about the unconscious. Let us think deeply about this case again.
Firstly, we need to talk about the claimant. From this case, she did not speak at all. Just sit
there in silence. No one can get her idea and also her true feeling. Meanwhile, she did not change
her pose at all. In another word, she did not have any body language. Sometimes it looked like she
had already fallen asleep. Did it mean that she did not care about this case? The answer was
absolutely no. One significant evidence was her dress style. As I noted, she dressed a bright red
coat which was a bit unsuitable for her age. Everyone dressed dark colour except her. Compared
with others, everyone which was involved in this case wanted to think about her and listen her

statement and also shaped a strong sense that she was angry inside and she felt unfair. From her
statement, she claimed that because of the badly investigation, she got mental sickness. She felt
depressed so that she cannot work as usual. She was in a disaster situation but the company did
not care about her mental healthy problems at all. Depressed mood induces the sufferer to
accommodate to low social rank, or to losing in social competition, or to adopting the one-down
position in a complementary relationship (Price, 1991; Price, Sloman, Gardner, Gilbert & Rohde,
1994; Sloman, Price, Gilbert & Gardner, 1994). Sustained over-activity of the separation-distress
PANIC/GRIEF system is one gateway to the psychic pain and increasing of depression. Another
arises from diminished SEEKING system, which reflects a downward effective spiral that arises
from the diminished desire to engage with the world (Panksepp, 2012). People who is in a
depression mood usually cannot live with a positive way. They do not want to speak to anyone
else. It is considerate that the reason why the claimant did not speak is because of she got this kind
of mental sickness. According to Black (2008), older people were more likely to suffer from
chronic health conditions. It means older people would get physical sickness easily than young
people. Furthermore, so many workers complained that they got extremely stress which generated
by a range of factors. For instance, bullying, harassment and, more generally, poor relationships
with colleagues and managers. It means workers would get a poor mental health conditions.
Having mental health problems can be distressing to individuals, their family members, friends
and workmates, and also affects their local communities. Many studies had been shown that
people with mental health problems often have fewer qualifications (Chevalier and Feinstein,
2006), find it is hard to keep going on their work (Meltzer et al. 2010) , have lower incomes
(McManus et al. 2009), and are more likely to have poor physical health as well. Some people
with mental health problems have bad diets because they did not want to eat anything at all
(McManus et al. 2009). The claimant, who was an old woman and she was involved in a badly
investigation which she had never before, should be in the worst situation. Perhaps she had both
older worker physical sickness and mental sickness. Because of these unconscious evidence, the
claimant was more likely treated unfair.
Secondly, I will talk about the lawyer of the claimant. His action could be different. At the
beginning, his voice was so low and I could not get his expressions because he was busy taking

notes and asking questions. After a break, his attitude changed a lot. He spoke so loud and he
faced the respondents and asked a lot of direct questions so that I saw his face clearly. His face
was cold and serious. He showed his strong power well so that it sounds like he had a strong
confidence about this case and also he can apply the evidence which can be proved claimant’s
innocence. Meanwhile, he would give the evidence that the company treated the claimant unfair.
Even though, I could not have a look at what he had wrote on the notebook and also I cannot
know what his minds was shaped and how it worked. But I can feel his power and got his aims. As
Obholzer (1994) states, “power refers to the ability to act upon others or upon organizational
structure.” Power itself can arise from both internal and external sources. On one hand, the
external source was about the respondents’ statement flaws and the attitudes of the respondents’.
Obviously, when he read the statements which came from the respondents’, he found some flaws
and at the second stage when he asked the respondents questions he also found that they felt
nervous. As we know, if people are nervous, it means they do not prepare well and also shows that
they might not tell truth because no one could forget the reality. On the other hand, the internal
power came from the lawyer of the claimant himself. For example, his knowledge and experience,
strength of personality. In my opinion, the lawyer is good at unconscious at work. He can get
others the unconscious from their behavious and speaking styles.
Thirdly, let us say something about the respondents. They had three people there except their
lawyer and the representative. Theoretically, their statements should be enough and they could be
prepared well. I saw them relax and gentle in the beginning, after that, they were nervous and
anxious. Some of them did not want to face the lawyer of the claimant and their voice was so low
sometimes. One of them could not control his bad temple. All the performance was not perfect as
they wished before. Although they tried their best to control their true feeling, their unconscious
drove them crazy and anxious.
At last, I will talk about the chairman. Before this case started, he read the whole case and all
of the statements from both sides. Be objective is important. It is so hard to be objective
sometimes because human beings have emotions which can drive people to be subjective. The best
way to be equal and fair is getting quite large number of information from both sides and do a
careful observation. So I saw him writing a lot of notes and listened carefully.

Overall, we should confirm that the unconscious exists and individuals are heavily influenced
by unconscious processes. No matter what kinds of people are, their unconscious will drive them
in their living work even though they cannot aware its existence. Behaviour of individual and
groups is shaped by unconscious factors. The result is that conscious is based on behaviour
(unconscious) and then the conscious drives people make decisions and so on. The relationship
between the conscious and the unconscious is inseparable. We have to say, it is a worthy work that
Freud and others made a contribution to the unconscious theory and practice systems. Without
them, we will not know unconscious exist and how does it work.
References:
Arnaud G (2004) The contribution of Psychoanalysis to Organization Studies and Management.
Organisation Studies, 33: 1121-1135
Branston G & Stafford R (1996) The Media Student’s Handbook, London: Routledge, pp 5-20
Black C (2008) Summary of evidence submitted: Review of the health of Britain's working age
population[J]. London: TSO.
Chevalier A and Feinstein L (2006) Sheepskin or Prozac: The causal effect of education on mental
health. Discussion paper. London: Centre for Research on Economics of Education, London
School of Economics, available at : http://cee.lse.ac.uk/cee%20dps/ceedp71.pdf
Jaques E (2003) Work and the unconscious[J]. Psychoanalytic psychology, 20(2): 236.
Kent M, Davis M C, Reich I W (2014) The Resilience Handbook[J].
Meltzer H, Bebbington P, Brugha T et al. (2010) Job insecurity, socio-economic circumstances and
depression. Psychological Medicine 40(8): 1401-1407.
McManus S, Meltzer H, Brugha T et al. (2009) Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England, 2007:
Results of a household survey. NHS information Centre for Health and Social Care.
McManus S, Meltzer H, Brugha T et al. (2009) Adult Psychiatric Morbidity in England, 2007:
Results of a household survey. Health and Social Care information Centre, Social Care Statistics.
Obholzer A, and Roberts V. Z, eds. (2003) The unconscious at work: Individual and organizational
stress in the human services. Routledge.

Obholzer A (1994) Authority, power and leadership[J]. The unconscious at work.
Prado de Oliveira L E (2005) The Unconscious[J]. Freud: A Modern Reader, 109-123.
Price J, Gardner R (1995) The paradoxical power of the depressed patient: a problem for
theranking theory of depression[J]. British journal of medical psychology, 68(3): 193-206.

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HRM 4075

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HRM 4075