Q & A With a Deloitte Employee about their Office Yoga Experience

Today we were fortunate enough to have a former Deloitte employee give their testimonial on their experience utilizing yoga sessions in their organization. This former employee chose to keep their identity anonymous. Deloitte was founded in 1845 in London, UK (Deloitte.com). Deloitte is a company that provides other corporate companies with audit, management consulting, auditing, tax, and advisory services. It is a top-four consulting company that works with Forbes 500 companies (Forbes, 2020). 

Here are some questions we asked the former employee:

What is the office culture like at Deloitte?

It depends. It is stress-inducing when you are quickly adapting and changing projects & teams. Short projects tend to last 3-4 weeks and can be unpredictable, which makes them stress-inducing. 

Is Deloitte a high stress-inducing environment?

It is a high-stress environment, and some management consulting employees have to travel weekly from Monday to Thursday, working over 40 hours a week. Health initiatives like corporate yoga are held remotely to target employees who may be traveling or working. 

Does the organization you worked for offer yoga sessions available for all employees or potential wellness programs/reenergizing rooms?

 Yes, they offer well-being initiatives remotely to have employees traveling tune in. It includes nutrition tips, webinars, well-being tips, and workshop sessions. That is how I found out about Deloitte's corporate yoga program.

How was your corporate yoga experience?

I did three months' worth of sessions. That is three yoga sessions, each yoga class consisting of 60 minutes webinars. These webinars were on Zoom and were taught by an individual who hosted the webinar and happened to have a yoga instructor certificate. Usually, there were around 50 employees in the Zoom meeting practicing yoga. I had a prior yoga practice, so it made it way easier to feel comfortable in this webinar. To make it easier for individuals who are beginners in yoga, all you needed was a chair to perform these yoga exercises in these webinars. I feel like people get intimidated because they think that yoga is all about mastering complicated yoga poses when, in reality, it can also be used to destress from work. 

How much marketing exposure do these yoga sessions usually get?

At Deloitte, there was more marketing exposure to these yoga sessions than other places I have worked for that offer yoga classes. Usually, I would find out about these webinars through emails because they would reach out to their local email list (West Coast offices vs. East Coast offices). Marketing, along with these events, could have been helpful. Deloitte has marketing campaigns for other types of events or webinars, but these yoga sessions tend to be communicated through email. However, other companies I have worked in the past, I was never aware of yoga events even though they are said to offer them.

Do you think you would have practiced yoga on your own?

I don't think I would have continued yoga, at least at the same frequency as I did for those months. If I had not gone to a yoga studio, I would not have pursued yoga on my own. I was first introduced to corporate yoga through this wellness program. I would have never learned about chair yoga or yoga that I could perform at work if not for these helpful webinars. 

Will you continue doing yoga?

I did continue doing yoga funny enough chair yoga that I learned through the wellness program. I tried to copy some of the poses & stretches used on my times. It was not as long as 60 minutes, because I am always on the run, but it was enough to ground me. I found it useful when I worked at Deloitte to relieve work stress. 

Written by Narcy Cruz.