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