Join Today & Get 4% Cash Back Then 6, 7...Up to 10% Off Reorders!

July 1, 2008, 6:35 pm
Flag as Inappropriate DianaR  

I have heard several things about general health and the workplace that really bother me. One was the story of a gentleman who's employer gave him a gift card for a health screening, and another was a story about employers giving bonuses to employees who developed healthy lifestyles.

How many ways can this go wrong? Too many!

When your employer starts edging toward supervising your life away from the office, you are giving up your privacy and allowing someone who can also remove your ability to provide basic living needs access to your life, in general.

I hope that people take the time to truly think about these ramifications.

Would you feel comfortable if your employer started pushing lifestyle changes on you?

No I would not. I think this is crazy. Yes I know unhealthy people make our premiums higher for the employee and the employer.

I do not think employees have any right to enter into our personal lives outside of work.

They will only get into your lives if you allow it. Without knowing all of the details I don't know about the health screening issue. But I don't think that giving employees bonuses for healthy lifestyles is bad. It is still the employees choice. The employer is only trying to help everyone by getting as many people as possible to take care of themselves and make every benefit with lower rates.

Sean

Offering incentives for employees to be proactive about their health is vastly different from supervising their private lives. It makes financial sense for employers to encourage healthy employees as it cuts the costs of sick leave and lost production. It's good for the employee who gets healthier and gets some sort of bonus for doing so. To me, this is a win-win situation.

What about in Japan where they are now fining companies that have employees with waist lines that are "too large"? Only 33.5 inches for a man and 35.4 inches for a woman. Now that is going too far in the business of an employee!

You need to remember that Japan is a completely different culture where mandatory group exercise at work is very common place. There is a reason they live longer than we do and part of it is because the companies take an active role in their health.

Smitty

Well companies have to pay more for unfit employees. If the conditions that they are having to pay for are preventable, they have a right to not pay-either by asking you to get fit or else asking you to pay the extra.

I would not be happy if an employer tried to put lifestyle changes on me. I would probably quit.