Sweat equity: Exercise caution over latest business trend
By Beth Teitell
Thursday, December 15, 2005
It sounds like the perfect cringe-worthy setup for an episode of ”The Office.” Alas, if only the latest business trend - meetings at the freakin’ gym - were fiction.
Not the bar next to the gym, or the restaurant in the same fitness complex, but the actual, go-there-to-work-out gym.
Yes, the next time your fitness-obsessed, time-strapped boss - or buff and demanding client - wants to discuss The Project, you might just be doing it on adjoining tread mills.
Excuse me, but whatever happened to those wonderful words of corporate wisdom ”Don’t ever let them see you sweat”?
So, no, you’re not done when you buy the perfect suit and the right briefcase. Now you’d better be packing industrial-strength anti-perspirant and some ”workout casual” exercise clothes.
Horrified - but happily sitting at my desk, not typing at some bike-mounted laptop - I called a 30-something corporate-type to get her take on ”the new golf course.”
”It goes from bad to worse,” she began. ”Do I really want my boss to know I lean over when I’m on the StairMaster?” No, she does not. After all, if she cuts corners at the gym, could that be interpreted as a sign that she’s a slacker in the office? ”If she sees me getting credit for 300 calories that I didn’t really earn on the stair-climbing machine, is she going to take a closer look at my work?”
But working out is only part of the problem. For same-sex business meetings, there are locker room issues to consider. ”What’s worse, if your boss is too modest, or if she strips down in front of you? Where do you look?”
Or suppose your biggest client has summoned you to the health club and you’re in better shape than he is? Do you dumb down the resistance on the rowing machine? Lift less than you like to? Ignore the pool of sweat he leaves on the dumbbells?
Proponents of this latest workplace indignity extol its alleged benefits: no interrupting phone calls, e-mails or colleagues; the bonds forged sweating together are good for business; the increased oxygen flow to the brain aids brainstorming sessions, yadda, yadda, yadda.
Sure, the promise of an uninterrupted meeting - a performance review, perhaps - is great for top workers, but correct me if I’m wrong, sometimes an interruption - say a fire alarm - can be just what you’re hoping for.
Frankly, this doesn’t bode well. The day can’t be too far off when entire conferences are held on a platoon of treadmills, and interviews are conducted mid-pilates class.
Should that dark day ever dawn, I’ll be ready, courtesy of a note from my doctor: ”To whom it may concern, please excuse Beth from her cardio board meeting today. She is too sick to participate, and should remain on the office sidelines.”
