Work or health: how companies influence our habits

Main subjects

AVAlexander VolchekWork, profession, and career pathHealth, rest, and lifestyleAnxiety, stress, and inner calmMeditation practice and techniqueHabit

Main threads of the conversation

• 00:00Work or health? How do companies influence us?
• 02:10Why do companies create special spaces for their employees?
• 04:46My experience in boxing, surprisingly enough
• 07:15Why do you work at this particular job?
• 10:08My hiring experience: group interviews and unusual managers
• 15:40How GOOGLE selects employees
• 17:38Freedom and stress can be mutually exclusive states
• 20:38What is expansive thinking?

Claims made here

Individual claims identified in the material: who said them, when, and what kind of thought they express. Each timestamp opens that point in the video.

• 02:10

  Not why employees don't go to the gym, or why only a small number go, but why Google wants people to go there.

  Alexander Volchekrecommendationcomparison

• 08:47

  Did they come to this company because their wife made them, or their husband made them, or because they want to prove to their parents that they can work there?

  Alexander Volchekcause

• 10:29

  I remember a group of analysts sitting in front of me when Andrey Rogachev and I were building a trading platform.

  Alexander Volchek

• 11:41

  I had a substantial, very broad body of experience. By that point, I no longer went to clubs or bars or played board games with employees, although there had been a time when I did.

  Alexander Volchek

• 14:44

  The company faces a question: do we hire people who definitely need them? There are always people who will appreciate them and say, “This is great.”

  Alexander Volchek

• 15:15

  If we don't pay attention to it, we have to understand that there are people who will simply never need them.

  Alexander Volchekrecommendation

• 16:01

  Perhaps, for example, it would need someone who appreciates these things, stays in that environment, or is ready to stay at one company for twenty years.

  Alexander Volchekcause

• 17:25

  So if we want to understand this issue as a whole and help the person Google hired solve the original problem, we first need to begin studying and observing it with this breadth.

  Alexander Volchekcauserecommendation

• 19:06

  In some states of stress, a person will work better than in a state of freedom or relaxation.

  Alexander Volchekcause

• 21:19

  It doesn't matter which side you're on as you listen: an owner or manager implementing these things or wanting to implement them, or an employee experiencing pressure from the company—or…

  Alexander Volchek