3 ms·

What about employee happiness, productivity and stress levels?

VLM 12y ago
Anecdotally my coworkers and I find it hyper creepy and don't participate. Very few people do. I don't actually know anybody who does, despite extremely heavy promotion such as nearly weekly spam and even physical paper spam sent to our homes. I'm one of the few people I work with who would auto-qualify because I exercise during my lunch hour, sorta reasonably healthy, great diet, but even I won't sign up. A program like this is almost the definition of a violation of work-life balance. Way too creepy, big brother is monitoring you. The last thing I want is an awkward metric on my annual review to verify my prostate is getting a regular workout and what my employer can do to help out and hows my stamina now and whatever other totally inappropriate freakishness they think up. The whole concept is just offensive. Just too many crossed boundaries. I find the sex analogy to be highly relevant. A happy employee is a productive employee so we should all be required to document and track our sexual activity with our boss and have a performance improvement plan as part of our reviews to make sure we're getting some. Next we can add religion! Ugh. They offer a wellness clinic in the lunch room about twice a year, free screenings and free vaccinations. Many people participate, including myself, the primary reason this isn't creepy is this doesn't involve my boss or HR or payroll getting involved, no big brother garbage. At least not in public (maybe there is a secret file on me for each flu vaccination I've gotten, donno).
- adrr 12y ago
  Here's the dilemma. How do employers control medical expenses? And then as an employee, why don't i get incentives for having healthy blood pressure levels, perfect cholesterol levels, a normal BMI? Our society is increasing becoming obese and our health care spending is spiring out of control. Something has to give. We have a really weird system where employers pay for our healthcare which is why see these wellness programs which people deem creepy.
  - revelation 12y ago
    Why are employers linked to healthcare? The idea is clearly insane, if you consider the recent court cases about christian companies (an oxymoron in itself) denying to pay for contraception (as part of the health plan, which contents are increasingly regulated). This isn't how it works in countries with functioning public healthcare systems.
    - mikestew 12y ago
      > Why are employers linked to healthcare? The idea is clearly insane Because socialism is evil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_the_United_States#The_rise_of_employer-sponsored_coverage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_the_United... I mean, it's trite but that's what it boiled down to. Truman had the idea of a an optional, government-backed health plan. Someone trots the magic "socialism" trigger word, and labor unions settled for employer-provided health insurance instead. (Though I wonder how Truman's plan would be self-sustaining if it were optional. We have enough problems financing not-optional plans.)
  - VLM 12y ago
    "why don't i get incentives for having healthy" Your incentive is health and a long active retirement, rather than keeling over dead on the job at 35. (And edited to add that there's an obvious conflict of interest in that the pension (LOL) or 401K dept wants you to die as young as possible, whereas the health insurance wants you to avoid acute illnesses (dead in 10 yrs is fine, because you'll be working elsewhere by then, statistically)) Note that non-employees like employers or .mil people or whatever all have the same incentive. Sucks to be sick, or dead. "Here's the dilemma. How do employers control medical expenses?" Employer provided health insurance is a WWII thing, and only in America. In the long run no employers will offer health insurance, just like the old days. That doesn't necessarily mean no health care, or no health insurance middlemen, but does imply no more employer involvement. These things come and go in phases and much like company stores and unions are not exactly at their high point of popularity right now, its time to sunset employer provided health care. Perhaps they'll all be back in the future, just not anytime soon. Economics are getting rid of that benefit faster than creepy wellness programs are spreading. I expect to be uninsured (by my employer, anyway) sooner than I'll be required to join a wellness program, so we'll just avoid it for awhile longer and then the problem will go away.

VLM 12y ago

Anecdotally my coworkers and I find it hyper creepy and don't participate. Very few people do. I don't actually know anybody who does, despite extremely heavy promotion such as nearly weekly spam and even physical paper spam sent to our homes. I'm one of the few people I work with who would auto-qualify because I exercise during my lunch hour, sorta reasonably healthy, great diet, but even I won't sign up. A program like this is almost the definition of a violation of work-life balance. Way too creepy, big brother is monitoring you. The last thing I want is an awkward metric on my annual review to verify my prostate is getting a regular workout and what my employer can do to help out and hows my stamina now and whatever other totally inappropriate freakishness they think up. The whole concept is just offensive. Just too many crossed boundaries. I find the sex analogy to be highly relevant. A happy employee is a productive employee so we should all be required to document and track our sexual activity with our boss and have a performance improvement plan as part of our reviews to make sure we're getting some. Next we can add religion! Ugh. They offer a wellness clinic in the lunch room about twice a year, free screenings and free vaccinations. Many people participate, including myself, the primary reason this isn't creepy is this doesn't involve my boss or HR or payroll getting involved, no big brother garbage. At least not in public (maybe there is a secret file on me for each flu vaccination I've gotten, donno).

adrr 12y ago
Here's the dilemma. How do employers control medical expenses? And then as an employee, why don't i get incentives for having healthy blood pressure levels, perfect cholesterol levels, a normal BMI? Our society is increasing becoming obese and our health care spending is spiring out of control. Something has to give. We have a really weird system where employers pay for our healthcare which is why see these wellness programs which people deem creepy.
- revelation 12y ago
  Why are employers linked to healthcare? The idea is clearly insane, if you consider the recent court cases about christian companies (an oxymoron in itself) denying to pay for contraception (as part of the health plan, which contents are increasingly regulated). This isn't how it works in countries with functioning public healthcare systems.
  - mikestew 12y ago
    > Why are employers linked to healthcare? The idea is clearly insane Because socialism is evil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_the_United_States#The_rise_of_employer-sponsored_coverage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_insurance_in_the_United... I mean, it's trite but that's what it boiled down to. Truman had the idea of a an optional, government-backed health plan. Someone trots the magic "socialism" trigger word, and labor unions settled for employer-provided health insurance instead. (Though I wonder how Truman's plan would be self-sustaining if it were optional. We have enough problems financing not-optional plans.)
- VLM 12y ago
  "why don't i get incentives for having healthy" Your incentive is health and a long active retirement, rather than keeling over dead on the job at 35. (And edited to add that there's an obvious conflict of interest in that the pension (LOL) or 401K dept wants you to die as young as possible, whereas the health insurance wants you to avoid acute illnesses (dead in 10 yrs is fine, because you'll be working elsewhere by then, statistically)) Note that non-employees like employers or .mil people or whatever all have the same incentive. Sucks to be sick, or dead. "Here's the dilemma. How do employers control medical expenses?" Employer provided health insurance is a WWII thing, and only in America. In the long run no employers will offer health insurance, just like the old days. That doesn't necessarily mean no health care, or no health insurance middlemen, but does imply no more employer involvement. These things come and go in phases and much like company stores and unions are not exactly at their high point of popularity right now, its time to sunset employer provided health care. Perhaps they'll all be back in the future, just not anytime soon. Economics are getting rid of that benefit faster than creepy wellness programs are spreading. I expect to be uninsured (by my employer, anyway) sooner than I'll be required to join a wellness program, so we'll just avoid it for awhile longer and then the problem will go away.