Monday, October 11, 2010
Employee Wellness Programs
Many companies, in an effort to help their employees be healthier (and therefore be more productive and cost them less money), have instituted wellness programs that have incentives for improving their health in specific ways. My husband's job has one such program, which includes spouses, and we think it's great. But we found it interesting that there is no alternative for the weight loss program. Unfortunately, such a high percentage of Americans are overweight that apparently in this program they didn't consider the possibility that some of us simply aren't. And we're not the only ones. At a weekly weigh-in, a very tall, thin teacher commented to my husband that he honestly can't lose any weight, that it would be bad for his health. So...while this weight loss program doesn't benefit a small percentage of us, I guess it'll be easy to "reach" our "goal." And we're still glad for the program, which helps us keep our health a priority and motivates us to get those incentives. If your place of employment doesn't have a wellness program, it couldn't hurt to ask about it and see if there's a way to get one started.
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7 comments:
Katrina- You bring up a great point! Wellness programs should not be about losing weight! It should be about teaching people how to be well and with that weight would come off naturally, if people have weight to lose. It is a step in the right direction but it is still wrong, IMHO.
Love keeping up with you here! You are a great writer. I need to work on my writing skills.
I think that is so funny and sad all at the same time. I'd like to point out that just because someone is thin, doesn't necessary mean that they are healthy or have good health habits. (I'm sure that's not the case for your husband!) But it's to sad that his company doesn't seem to have other health suggestions for those who are already at a healthy weight.
Thanks for clarifying those points, ladies! Natalie, that is totally true that a wellness program shouldn't be about weight but about health. And Carolyn, thanks for pointing out that it doesn't necessarily follow that if you're thin you're healthy.
Our old insurance had one. It was great to get rewarded for living well. The tips were great too.
I thought that was interesting too, because Rob is underweight (sigh). He is in the weightloss challenge because it is easy to do and he has to participate in 4 challenges. I guess it is good for both of us. Just interesting!
I know that I am late posting this, but maybe someone will see this.
At my job, they have different challenges to get a discount on the next year's insurance. The latest one was exercise, but some of the others were about using your brain and organizing.
We also had a weight loss contest independent of the health insurance. I did pretty well on it.
Challenges for brain exercising your brain and organizing sound like excellent ideas!
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