HUFFINGTON
08.04.13
COURTESY OF PROMEGA CORP.
CORPORATE ZEN
Linton lexicon. (Transformation
is another.) He is partial to the
hierarchy of needs as delineated
by the humanist psychologist
Abraham Maslow, whose pyramids famously laid out an architecture of human concern — base
needs such as breathing, water,
sex and sleep at the bottom, and
the loftiest need at the top: “selfactualization,” in Maslow’s initial
conception later swapped out for
“transcendence.” This, says Linton, may as well be Promega’s organizational chart.
This is why he has made meditation and yoga available to all of
his employees, Linton says. This is
why every building on campus has
a fitness center available for free
to every employee. This is why
the campus guesthouse where he
puts up visiting customers comes
equipped with a sauna. (“We want
to give them an unforgettable experience,” Linton says.)
This is why every building on
Promega’s campus — an architectural stew of Frank Lloyd Wright,
Swiss ski chalet and Japanese
pagoda that is the base for some
700-plus employees — is full
of what interior designers call
“third spaces,” meaning areas
neither home nor office, such as
bright, informal cafes and banks
of soft-backed chairs where people can hang out or mingle, still
creating but freed from their cubicles. This is why every building
contains a mother’s room, a private place where a nursing mother can pump breast milk.
Promega
employees
have the
option to
work out by
themselves,
or with a
group of
co-workers.
Fitness
equipment is
available to
employees
on campus,
24/7.