Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tharn

I don't even know

where to begin

With my fear

and rage

and helplessness

in the face of this new wave of institutionalized discrimination.

I call absolute bullshit.

4 comments:

ThirtySomething!?! said...

Why is it that these "wellness" programs never include things like providing employees work/life balance and proper support to reduce stress? Oh, wait that's right, this is not about actual "wellness" of the employees, but rather a way for employers to discriminate while saving themselves a little money. Disgusting, indeed!

meerkat said...

Is the post title a Watership Down reference? Because that is kind of awesome, although the state itself is less than awesome.

Anonymous said...

Why is it that these "wellness" programs never include things like providing employees work/life balance and proper support to reduce stress?

Some of them do. At my old office they offered everything from meditation to flu shots. Unfortunately, the very success of those programs at well-funded progressive companies only adds to the data that says these programs succeed. Then lesser companies (not in size, necessarily, but in vision) use that data to justify stupid "biggest loser" competitions.

The problem isn't with the idea that corporations offer (and benefit from) good programs to keep their workers as healthy as possible. The problem is the crappy execution.

Cassi (sorry for the anon thing, work is messing with all things google right now)

Bilt4cmfrt said...

Yes. That helpless anger is all too familiar. When I first ran across this asinine idea last year, Alabama was just considering it. Apparently the rights of their public employees is of no concern since it's already passed. So much for their rights to privacy and the confidentiality of their medical / health circumstance. You know, the medical circumstance that CAN'T be determined by a simple gauge like BMI.

It's been said before but I think bares repeating. Over and over until people actually start to get it if necessary; BMI is a measurement created OVER 100 years ago by a mathematician to study weight / size trends in POPULATIONS. The inventor, himself, cautioned that it SHOULD NOT be used to signify ANYTHING on an individual basis. But, of course, the CDC (Scientists?) WHO (More Scientists?)
and now Big Government (Dummies. But still capable of heeding warnings), are now using it to determine individual health. Idiots, the lot of them. Or perhaps not. We are in the middle of a healthcare crisis and scapegoats are not easy to come by. Especially scapegoats that can be made to pay.

As for Gov. Manchin, perhaps he's realized what a real mistake offending 60% of his constituency might be. It certainly didn't work for NJ's former Gov.