Inc.

When you practice mindfulness, it's like you're changing the channel on the TV screen of the mind, from the traumatic memories that hold your fear in place to what's happening right now: the sounds of birds outside your window, the sensations in your belly, or the texture of each inhale and exhale. The key is to develop the skill of meeting anxiety with mindfulness by paying careful attention to the present moment. One of the central tenants of mindfulness practice, however, is to do the exact opposite--to welcome instead of resisting, to see what you have to learn from these interesting new people who showed up at your door instead of shouting them down. And yet, as this new research suggests, this counterintuitive practice may just be the key to unwinding the memories that hold fear in place, and to approaching your work and the world from the powerfully productive place of fearlessness.

" Lately, more entrepreneurs have begun speaking out about their internal struggles in an attempt to combat the stigma on depression and anxiety that makes it hard for sufferers to seek help. In a deeply personal post called "When Death Feels Like a Good Option," Ben Huh, the CEO of the Cheezburger Network humor websites, wrote about his suicidal thoughts following a failed startup in 2001. Sean Percival, a former MySpace vice president and co-founder of the children's clothing startup Wittlebee, penned a piece called (For more of Feld's thoughts on depression, see his column, "Surviving the Dark Nights of the Soul," in Inc.'s July/August issue.)

The New York Times published a deep-dive into the subject Thursday and found that open-pay policies can actually decrease a workforce's happiness. Three years in, the company's founders decided to fully embrace open-pay policies: All salaries at the company are posted online, for anyone to see. And the workforce's positivity went hand-in-hand with financial success, as Buffer made the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America that same year. As the Times story noted: "Corporate culture can be a form of capital as well." Last year, a LinkedIn survey of more than 5,000 companies reported that 22 percent of them were likely to start sharing more salary information for open positions by 2024.

Mark Loveless, a senior security researcher at San Francisco-based GitLab, says data security is always a work in progress--especially for GitLab, a company that creates tools for software developers and has one of the world's largest all-remote workforces. Bennett says Privateer typically has three to five security tools running on each employee's laptop, which feature capabilities like remote access, remote wiping or bricking, and secure channels for communication. Loveless also says that when GitLab last upgraded its security protocols, it kept the old protocols--a more tightly restricted system, with access based on both user credentials and IP address locations--as a "break-the-glass" option to keep the business up and running during emergencies. The goal is for new workers to internalize best practices at their own pace, and each potential change to those protocols is measured by a simple litmus test: Will the increased security be worth the additional hassle to employees?The company also works to educate employees on new protocols by holding regular company-wide meetings, which Loveless says are "thoroughly documented" for anyone who misses.