Such corporate giants as Heinz and Apple Computer have sponsored in-house massage programs for their employees. A case of misguided management? Maybe not. Researchers at Bowling Green University found that weekly chair massages reduced employee anxiety in a firm that was downsizing. Lucky workers who enjoyed a 15-minute rubdown once a week felt less stressed than colleagues who received a weekly 15-minute break, report Gwen Jones, Ph.D., and Karen Shulman, M.A., in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. And their calm feelings lingered weeks after the study ended.
Shulman performed half of the massages herself, waiving her typical dollar-a-minute fee in the name of science. And therein lies the rub. In an economy where companies are more likely to hand out pink slips than new benefits, will corporate America foot the bill for massages? In California's Silicon Valley, where some computer geeks work 80-hour weeks, office massages are practically de rigueur. "It tells employees that the company cares," says Jones. And possible reductions in the costs that result from stress-related illnesses might pay for some of those massages.
