Press Releases
Catharsis Corporation receives certification as a Women Business Enterprise
Newton, MA (August 27, 2001) - Catharsis Corporation, a Newton-based, ergonomic consulting company received certification as a Women Business Enterprise given by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council.
The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is a coalition of corporations, regionally focused women's business organizations and representatives of the Women's Business Enterprise (WBE) community.
Certification brings women owned businesses in front of large corporate supporters such as Bank of America, IBM, Walmart, and Pepsi, to name just a handful. In return, corporate supporters have access to diverse suppliers.
The rising number of computer related workplace injuries is costing the corporate world millions of dollars in workers' compensation claims, lost productivity, and absenteeism. Catharsis Corporation demonstrates significant cost savings to mid to large size corporate companies in New England through customized ergonomic consultation and programs. The founder of Catharsis Corporation, Seema Pandya, is from Needham, MA. More information on their programs can be found at www.catharsis.com.
The froth's not off the cyberbrews
By Hayley Kaufman, Globe Staff, 2/18/2001
With Madonna's old hit ''Borderline'' blaring, neon spotlights sweeping across the crowd, and bartenders topping off fizzy mixed drinks, it might have been any night at the Big Easy, the cavernous New Orleans-themed club just off Boylston Street near Boston Common.
Except that no one, not one person in a crowd of just over 300 young tech professionals, was dancing.
What they were doing - loudly, intensely, earnestly - was spinning, that is, trying to be upbeat in light of the grim tales plaguing the high-tech world. These days, at the Massachusetts Interactive Media Council's monthly ''cyberbrew'' events, one of the cooling centers of the city's tech scene, spin is king. And the young dot-commers who've populated the milieu through boom and bust are masters of the art.
''They need us more now than ever,'' Seema Pandya, 28, yelled over the thumping music.
Pandya is the executive director of Catharsis, a workplace health company that, among other things, dispatches physical therapists to provide at-work massages and meditation seminars. Just a year ago, perks like these were seen as critical to holding onto employees in a tech world rife with competition and awash in money. But now, with staffs getting axed and the money all but gone, Pandya is adjusting her pitch accordingly.
''Let's say you have 20 percent layoffs,'' she said. ''Now you have 20 percent less people doing the same amount of work, and their stress level is higher. [Companies] need us to keep morale up and to retain their key employees.''
Ten feet and several chattering partygoers away, David Morris, 23, a recent Wharton grad and founder of Seedling Group, which connects ''creme de la creme'' graduates with jobs, had his own spin. ''Layoffs are sexy,'' he said, strafing a listener with bullet points of the New New Economy:
''If you're laying off now, it means you're cleaning up shop.''
''Investors want to invest - they just want to be sure it's not garbage.''
''This is a great time to recruit because there are better quality individuals out there.''
''There's so much capital out there to invest, it's insane.''
The DJ segued into a thunderous track by the Rolling Stones. Jaw wondered - amid all the chatter, the spinning, the digging into pockets for business cards - if anyone was listening…
…OK. So maybe the venture-capital people have deserted the scene. Maybe there are fewer jobs to be had. From the look on Olender's face, there were at least six good reasons to be networking that night.
And if he'd known how promising the scene would be? Olender grinned. ''I would have brought my friends.''
This story ran on page M02 of the Boston Globe on 2/18/2001.