For businesses to remain competitive and healthy, it’s time for the widespread introduction of meditation spaces in the workplace.
Increased Stress, Decreased Productivity
Just as there is nothing fluffy about meditation, there is also nothing fluffy about the costs to employers relating to stress and its impact of diminished productivity from employees.
A 2016 Conference Board of Canada report claims approximately $50 billion dollars in the Canadian economy are lost annually due to employee depression and anxiety. Productivity is lost through both ‘absenteeism’ (employees away from their jobs) and ‘presenteeism’ (employees going to work while sick and underperforming), with a large proportion due to unmet mental health needs that are preventing people from performing at their best.
Stress is exacerbated in economic downturns and recessions, with the majority of the workforce not guaranteed job or wage security, and the unemployed desperate to make ends meet. Without health benefits, the option to fill expensive prescriptions to treat depression and anxiety is an additional burden.
Meditation Benefits Individuals
Meditation can alleviate a great deal of stress and teach us the tools to better manage stressful situations, allowing us to make better decisions and choices. It is one of the most empowering things we can give ourselves, especially when we feel disempowered and not in control of our circumstances.
Long hours, varying demands and cycles of deadlines, difficult co-workers, bosses, toxic workplaces, and under-or-unemployment all contribute to significant stress. Meditation mitigates stress by giving us greater mental and emotional clarity, thereby resulting in improved decision making, memory, and motivation. The better we feel, the better we are able to impact and influence those around us.
Meditation Benefits Business
“It’s about what is in the best interest of the company, not what is in your best interest.” No doubt some of us have either felt or heard the same or similar sentiment from employers. Well, we no longer live in Gordon Gekko’s “greed is good” world, where employees were treated more as a number rather than as a human being, and being taken advantage of under threat of being fired or demoted. Companies of any size are only as successful as the individuals who work there.
Corporate Social Responsibility refers to business practices involving initiatives that benefit society, which includes treating employees fairly and ethically. Businesses can better benefit society by taking better care of our individual health and wellness, of which mental health is a huge component, where we spend most of our time – at work. Hence, the need for meditation time and space at the office.
Modern + Mindful in Your Office
The trend toward mindfulness is demonstrated by companies such as Google and Apple, where their employees have meditation rooms and classes.
Workplace culture is determined as much from employees across all levels of an organization, as from its leadership and management teams. If employees want wellness spaces at the office, such as a room to meditate in, it’s up to you to speak up and ask for it.
We offer corporate meditation and team events – let us help you!
