Huffington Magazine Issue 60 | Page 53

HUFFINGTON 08.04.13 CORPORATE ZEN tee and wears round wire-rimmed glasses. He stumbled on yoga in the 1990s as a means of alleviating excruciating hip pain. He later dabbled in meditation as a participant in the research project conducted on the Promega campus by Davidson, the University of Wisconsin research scientist. At the time, Slater was mourning several deaths in his family and struggling to handle the responsibilities of freshly becoming a father. “I was kind of primed for it,” Slater says. “I was looking for a little help, just coping.” He threw himself into the classes with Kabat-Zinn. His wife, a poet, pronounced him easier to live with. “My wife was really happy with me, because I got much nicer,” Slater says, somewhat bemused. “Apparently, I lost some of my edge.” Like many technology companies, Promega is at peace with flexible time. No one counts how many hours people sit at their desks. No one seems to raise an eyebrow when an employee turns away from a computer screen to pick up a yoga mat and head to the Mind and Body studio. If anything, a collective understanding has emerged that stepping out in this way is an I CAN’T NECESSARILY TIE THIS SELFACTUALIZATION TO HELPING US GAIN CASH FLOW OR DEVELOP BETTER PRODUCTS. YOU CAN’T CALCULATE THE RETURN ON INVESTMENT. intrinsic part of the work. “Some people think you can’t get good thinking out of people unless you really apply the screws,” Slater says. “I think of it differently. Unless you get to a really clear, still place in your mind, you can’t think effectively.” The result of this is a fitness ethic that permeates the Promega culture. While many companies offer employees fitness centers and inducements to ride their bicycles to work, with rewards ranging from T-shirts to cash bonuses, what is striking at Promega is the extent to