Working for Balance - The Motley Approach
Monday, September 01, 2008SUSIE GHARIB: It's difficult to juggle all of the aspects of your life and give enough attention to each. The stress that results is costing employers plenty, over $300 billion a year. But as Erika Miller reports, some companies are finding unique ways to buck that trend.
ERIKA MILLER, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Maybe it's the people doing yoga in a conference room during the work day, or the workers playing board games in another. Come to the Motley Fool offices in Alexandria, Virginia, and you'll notice immediately the work environment is unusual. The media company, best known for its online financial Web site, encourages staff to take frequent breaks, whether to play ping-pong or video games, shoot hoops, or get a massage. The company also gives workers unlimited paid sick days, as well as unlimited paid vacation days, provided they clear it with their managers. The company deters abuse of those policies by doing performance reviews three times a year. In the firm's Hawaiian-themed meeting area, CEO Tom Gardner explains that all of this goofing off is part of a well-thought-out business strategy to reduce stress, boost productivity, and keep turnover to next to nothing.
TOM GARDNER, CEO, THE MOTLEY FOOL: When you give people the flexibility, you give them an opportunity to really love the place where they work, and when they start loving where they work, they start performing better. It's actually a very economic decision on our part. We've thought through all of the implications of what we're doing in developing our culture. And they have economic underpinnings to them.
MILLER: You probably think it's expensive for Motley Fool to offer employees all these perks, but the company says its benefit costs are leaner than most, just 25 percent of workers' salaries, versus an average of 33 percent for similarly sized companies. The company credits its anti-stress culture with keeping down medical costs.
GARDNER: Last year, our health premiums were down 8 percent, so our insurance costs actually went down last year in an environment where the average company is paying 10 to 15 percent more.
MILLER: Analyst Tim Hanson said the play room and company-sponsored basketball leagues do more than relieve stress, they encourage team work and the exchange of ideas.
TIM HANSON, SENIOR ANALYST, THE MOTLEY FOOL: We run a gym every Thursday night. We play outside on Mondays. And that's great just because it's nice to get outside with people from work in a non-work environment. You know, you make a lot of friends. We've got a real collegial atmosphere around here. And I think that's really an important part of it.
MILLER: And don't be "fooled," online managing editor LouAnn DiCosmo says she and her colleagues work every bit as hard as they play.
LOUANN DICOSMO, ONLINE MANAGING EDITOR: Well, we definitely are a performance-based culture, but we're not a clock-based culture, I would say. And for us it's more about the quality of the work being done.
MILLER: The toll of excessive stress on the body has well-documented, including stomach problems, high blood pressure, and headaches. Columbia University psychiatrist Harold Pincus says the psychological effects can be equally as serious.
DR. HAROLD PINCUS, NYPH/COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: It affects your daily functioning. If you're under tremendous amounts of stress, it affects your sleep, it affects your ability to concentrate, it affects your ability to interact with colleagues and family, it makes you more irritable.
MILLER: The American Institute of Stress estimates workers' stress costs U.S. businesses $300 billion a year, due to factors like medical costs, turnover and absenteeism. To help reduce stress levels, Kathleen Hall of the Stress Institute recommends that workers try to get more exercise and improve their diet. She also suggests taking mental breaks like playing online board games and puzzles.
KATHLEEN HALL, FOUNDER, THE STRESS INSTITUTE: We're seeing that there are simpler, easier ways to de-stress yourself. You can play for five minutes and it actually re-stabilizes the brain. It changes you. It reduces your stress; you get more creative and more productive.
MILLER: A certain amount of stress in life is unavoidable and not necessarily a bad thing. It keeps life from becoming dull. The challenge in today's fast-paced world is to make stress work for you instead of against you. Erika Miller, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Alexandria, Virginia.
