Yoga, the new choice in hobnobbing! The New York Post has a piece on the practice of workplace yoga outings replacing a stereotypical round of golf, or brewskies, for intra-office pow-wowing. Cute! It’s wonderful to share yoga with others, and when it’s you and your co-workers, or BOSS, chillaxing (or sweating profusely?) together, that sounds like the perfect opportunity for brown-nosing, er bonding.
After all, yoga is great at breaking down barriers and is widely known to leave you in a more peaceful and compassionate state (oh don’t ask us, that’s just what we hear). Plus, how you yoga, not your level of strength or flexibility, but your presence in the practice tells a lot about how you interact with the outside world, including in your job. Sounds a lot scarier than 18 holes!
So yoga is uniting and can help increase productivity, but are you willing to strip down to your skivvies for team Bikram class?
Twice a week, Polly Payne puts on skimpy shorts and a bathing-suit top and heads to a yoga studio with two male superiors from her office. In a small 104-degree room (with 40 percent humidity), she and her bosses contort their bodies into shapes that most HR departments would deem “unacceptable.”
“It can get a little weird because the outfits tend to be a bit skimpy — especially with the guys, because they wear those boxer briefs and it’s like, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I want to see that!’ ” laughs Payne.
Hrm. Talk about transparency. Airing out differences? Still, some say it’s healthier than getting your drink on at the bar, a standard routine here in NYC, and good grief is it more fun than golf! (editor’s bias)
Another bonus? Yoga is so super cool now that it can be a resume booster. According to Jay Solomon adding “just some bulls – – t at the bottom of the resume” about being an advanced yoga practitioner got him in with the boss, an avid yogi.
“I think it automatically marks you as slightly alternative, creative and modern . . . If I put the gym or weightlifting [on my resume], I don’t think people would care as much.”
There you have it. Yoga for mind-body union and better ass kissing!
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Earlier…
Yoga as the new Golf! Even bringing an instructor into the office and doing some basic hatha, stretching and relaxation would do wonders for office works that sit hunched all day.
Newsflash. Human Resources always knew, but they had been keeping it a secret:
Yoga is now the new:
(1) Team-building session
(2) Conventioneers’ huddle
(3) Ice breaking/networking session
(4) T-Group
(5) Deal-sealing jaunt (who needs to hit the nightclubs anymore–too much “mixed company”?)
That said, there had been incipient signs in the last place I worked (of any larger of the small firms I worked at) …. the In-House New Age Wellness Fair …
Our associates in a far-off office (on some campus) get a few hatha yoga sessions (for cheap!) thrown in certain times of the year …
Finally….
yup!! Since I have been networking and looking for a job, I have been on so many yoga dates! It really opens conversations up and (i think) allows you to give your employer to know you better. I applaud anything that breaks down that corporate shell everyone seems to walk around in 🙂
Not sure if I would want to attend yoga class with my fellow workers – but I would love working with fellow yogis and yoginis.
I just taught yoga at an employee wellness event and loved the reaction I got from stressed out workers. Just a few minutes of breathing exercises and I could see the smiles forming.
Yoga is soooo needed in the workplace – I hope it does become the new golf!
Kiss Up to Your Boss With Yoga! I am sure that is what my Ex wife did!
This is so true! The company I work for has recently began to offer yoga during the lunch hour. After a nice relaxing class of yoga, I find that my work productivity is significantly better, and I am more relaxed. I think it’s great that yoga is being used in the business world.
Ha! I just emailed this to my sister, who was recently invited to join some other female managers in her company for (hush-hush, invitation-only) after-work Ashtanga in one of the boardrooms. She is forever teasing me about a group practice I have in my home with some friends, so it’s nice to lob a little something back her way.
Teehee!
with all the fun comments and images in the article, what caught my eye down here in galveston was “a small 104-degree room (with 40 percent humidity)” –
now the small room thing is definitely a yuk 😉 but 40% humidity?
don’t know ’bout this time of year, but offer that up around here (or houston or austin) anytime this summer, and you’d probably get “hey how cool is that!” 😉
Hilarious.
Similarly, I have found that yoga is the new networking tool. I teach a lot of yoga, but I also work part time in public relations / public affairs. It’s such an easy conversation piece — so many people are curious to try yoga but haven’t taken a step in that direction. There are so many styles, people need a guide. And so, it becomes cocktail conversation.
if this is a trend, it’s a healthy one, but i’m not convinced.