There was a great article about having a meditation room/yoga room at Telus Mobility. This is definitely a great trend where companies are beginning to recognize employees as whole beings and not just an instrument of production. Why is this important? In a knowledge economy where most of us work with our brains and not our muscles, we can no longer check our personalities at the front door and adopt some artificial persona forced upon us by the "corporation". Competitive advantage is won by creativity and innovation. Creativity and innovation are products of the brain. Companies that provide a work environment and facilities to nurture our minds will ultimaltely win. It occured to me that meditation rooms at work are the new gyms or physical fitness centres.
I am not down playing physical fitness. Spiritual fitness is just as important as physical fitness. The point is that the human being must be looked upon holisitcally. We have a personal responsibiility to ensure that we are spiritualy, mentally and physically fit. Our organizations have a responsibility to provide a workplace environment that will foster and not hinder our development and use of our whole being. It is a partnership between the employee and the organization. To this end I was very happy to hear that our company is considering adopting the Mental Health Risk Assessment offered by Entec Corporation. We will be able to go online if we feel a need and take the diagnostic. We will instantly get our own results on our emotional well-being in a five page report that if we need we can take to our doctors for follow up treatment. This is all encouraging.
