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Naked Fridays

By Courtney Rubin | Thursday, July 2, 2009 8:39 PM ET

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Would you work naked to improve your company's morale? That’s the decision workers at a Newcastle, England, design and marketing company faced – and nearly all of them chose to bare all.

Business psychologist David Taylor told staff at Onebestway that working together naked would boost their team spirit. After six of the staff at had been laid off because of the recession -- called the “credit crunch” in England -- the mood was low.

“Inviting an organization to go naked is the most extreme technique I’ve used,” Taylor told the UK’s The Telegraph. “It may seem weird but it works. It’s the ultimate expression of trust in yourself and each other.”

It took some time and coaxing, but nearly all the Onebestway staff removed all their clothes except for a man who wore a posing pouch and one of two female workers, who wore black underwear.

“It was emotional but we found we were much more able to talk to each other honestly – and have been since,” employee Sam Jackson (the one woman who did go completely bare) told the Telegraph. “The company has improved massively.”

If you think the whole thing sounds made for television -- well, not surprisingly, it has been. Naked Office appears July 9 on the UK's Virgin cable channel.

Courtney Rubin is a freelance writer living in London.

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