Google<\/a>\u2019s campus here \u2014 with its indoor treehouse, volleyball court, apiaries, heated toilet seats and, yes, Oz-style road \u2014 and you might think you\u2019ve just sailed over the rainbow.<\/p>\nBut all the toys and perks belie the frenetic pace here, and many employees acknowledge that life at Google can be hard on fragile egos.<\/p>\n
Sure, the amenities are seductive, says Blaise Pabon, an enterprise sales engineer, but \u201cwhen you get to a place like this, it can tear you apart\u201d if you don\u2019t find a way to handle the hard-driving culture.<\/p>\n
Faced with such ultra-pressure, hundreds of Google employees are taking a free class called \u201cS.I.Y.\u201d, short for \u201cSearch Inside Yourself.\u201d Created by Chade-Meng Tan, one of Google\u2019s early and most successful engineers, S.I.Y. trains its students in the use of \u201cmindfulness at work.\u201d It includes three basic steps: \u201cattention training, self-knowledge and self-mastery, and the creation of useful mental habits.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re not a Google employee, don\u2019t worry. Tan\u2019s secrets will soon be published by HarperOne in his first book, Search Inside Yourself: The Unexpected Path to Achieving Success, Happiness (and World Peace)<\/em>. HarperOne has great hope for this book\u2019s success:<\/p>\n\u201cAs technology pushes us faster, we have to adapt to new ways of doing business in this new millennium,\u201d says Mark Tauber, senior vice president and publisher at HarperOne. \u201cWe believe that Meng\u2019s book lays the groundwork for a new national conversation about work and what work means to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google employees speak appreciatively of the impact of S.I.Y. on their lives and work:<\/p>\n
One exercise asks everyone to name, and share with a partner, three core values. \u201cIt centers you,\u201d one man says afterward. \u201cYou can go through life forgetting what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johanna Sistek, a trademark lawyer, says the emotional skills she refined in the class help her focus on her many tasks, despite a fire hose of professional demands. Like most of her colleagues, she still faces \u201cinstant deadlines\u201d but says they no longer freak her out.<\/p>\n
S.I.Y. doesn\u2019t just deal with emotions and lofty ideals. It gets down to the nitty-gritty, with recommendations for e-mailing:<\/p>\n
Can S.I.Y. translate to other companies and corporate cultures? One of its tenets is mindful e-mailing. Mr. Tan says it\u2019s too easy to focus on the message we\u2019re sending, and not on its recipients and the possible impact on them. When recipients don\u2019t know the intent behind the e-mail \u2014 as is often the case \u2014 they tend to assume the worst, like anger or frustration on the sender\u2019s part. \u201cWe frequently get offended or frightened by e-mails that were never intended to offend or frighten,\u201d Mr. Tan writes in his book. \u201cIf we are emotionally unskillful, then we react with offense or fear, and then all hell breaks loose.\u201d<\/p>\n
As I read Caitlyn Kelly\u2019s article, I was struck by how much workers, even the highly driven and successful workers of Google, desperately need to find meaning in their lives and work. S.I.Y. encourages them to find this meaning in themselves, which may or may not be the best way to do it. But at least this class provides people with an opportunity to slow down and think about their work, their lives, and themselves. One does not have to buy into the Buddhist<\/a> dimensions of mindfulness to recognize the need for harried, hassled, hurried workers to take time to stop, rest, think, and feel, to pay attention to the people they\u2019re working with and not just the tasks, to reflect on core values, and so forth. As a Christian, I find myself challenged and intrigued by the example of S.I.Y. to consider what Christian faith and fellowship might have to offer to workers who are looking for meaning, balance, rest, and wholeness in life. If indeed Tan\u2019s book provokes, a \u201cnew national conversation about work and what work means to us,\u201d how will Christians contribute to the dialogue?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According the New York Times, Google has a new secret that\u2019s transforming their corporate life. In \u201cO.K., Google, Take a Deep Breath,\u201d Caitlin Kelly investigates this secret, a class called \u201cSearch Inside Yourself.\u201d She sets up the need for this class by pointing out the extraordinary demands and stresses for those who work at Google\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[977],"tags":[7775,16762,16904,21636],"class_list":["post-3957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words","tag-google","tag-meaning","tag-s-i-y","tag-work"],"yoast_head":"\n
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