(no subject)
There's been a lot of controversy recently about WFM's healthy TM discount plan. The short version: the company provides an on-site screening for which team members can voluntarily sign up. This screening measures blood pressure, nicotine use, total cholesterol, and BMI. Based on the results of this screening, the TM may be eligible for an increased discount (over the 20% we already get). There is no penalty for not participating, or for getting poor scores.
This article has a reasonably well-argued critique of the plan (as opposed to some of the more polemic articles that I found, who clearly have a bone to pick with Mackey/WFM in the first place, and are just jumping on this as an opportunity to do so).
So, having been through the screening and gotten my results (and being familiar with the general range of results on the produce team), here are my thoughts:
1. Measuring things that can vary greatly over a relatively short period of time (eg, blood pressure) is not a good way to screen. E.g., the thing that knocked Petal out of the running for an extra discount was his blood pressure. Keep in mind that this guy had just worked nine days straight, including a Valentines week that blew the old floral record out of the water. Of course his blood pressure was high; he was exhausted and under a phenomenal amount of stress at the time. Take his pressure tomorrow, once he's had a couple of days off, and I can pretty well guarantee that it'll be at a much more reasonable level.
2. Measuring total cholesterol instead of HDL/LDL ratio or some such is another poor choice. I asked our benefits specialist about this, and she said it was because those tests require fasting, so they didn't want to do it since the screening didn't even start til 1.30 -- hungry TMs are cranky TMs, and cranky TMs are bad for business. But this meant that even though almost everyone on Produce had high HDL and excellent ratios (and one guy had gotten a physical not too long ago, with the doc saying that he was extremely happy with his cholesterol levels), most didn't qualify because total cholesterol was too high. This is even before you get in to the genetics controversy.
3. Something about the discount implementation doesn't make sense to me, and it's the same thing that didn't make sense when it was first explained (which was, admittedly, at 7 AM during a store meeting). If the idea is to get people to lower their scores on these criteria, then shouldn't the discount be aimed towards people who are doing that, rather than people who are already there? E.g., if my cholesterol is high because I'm eating pizza rolls, because I can't afford fresh fruit and veg that often, then how does this program help me achieve that? Wouldn't it make more sense to offer a high discount as a goal state to those who meet certain health criteria (not necessarily the ones above), but offer an increased discount to TMs who are working on improving their health by working out at the gym, or such things? That discount might encourage them to eat more healthily while also offsetting some of the costs of such a membership.
4. But really, the thing that makes me look at this and say "Dude, seriously?" is the fact that we had one person score in the platinum level, one person score in the gold level, one in the silver, and about ten in the bronze. I think I know who the gold was, and I know that I'm the silver. ::considers self, considers teammates:: Really? There's no way that I'm the third healthiest person in that store. But as the housemates suggested last night, I could probably get a book deal out of it: The Bacon, Beer, and Car Bumper Sauce Diet.
This entry was originally posted at http://wayfarer.dreamwidth.org/5154.html, which is way better than LJ. Please comment there using OpenID or your DW account.
This article has a reasonably well-argued critique of the plan (as opposed to some of the more polemic articles that I found, who clearly have a bone to pick with Mackey/WFM in the first place, and are just jumping on this as an opportunity to do so).
So, having been through the screening and gotten my results (and being familiar with the general range of results on the produce team), here are my thoughts:
1. Measuring things that can vary greatly over a relatively short period of time (eg, blood pressure) is not a good way to screen. E.g., the thing that knocked Petal out of the running for an extra discount was his blood pressure. Keep in mind that this guy had just worked nine days straight, including a Valentines week that blew the old floral record out of the water. Of course his blood pressure was high; he was exhausted and under a phenomenal amount of stress at the time. Take his pressure tomorrow, once he's had a couple of days off, and I can pretty well guarantee that it'll be at a much more reasonable level.
2. Measuring total cholesterol instead of HDL/LDL ratio or some such is another poor choice. I asked our benefits specialist about this, and she said it was because those tests require fasting, so they didn't want to do it since the screening didn't even start til 1.30 -- hungry TMs are cranky TMs, and cranky TMs are bad for business. But this meant that even though almost everyone on Produce had high HDL and excellent ratios (and one guy had gotten a physical not too long ago, with the doc saying that he was extremely happy with his cholesterol levels), most didn't qualify because total cholesterol was too high. This is even before you get in to the genetics controversy.
3. Something about the discount implementation doesn't make sense to me, and it's the same thing that didn't make sense when it was first explained (which was, admittedly, at 7 AM during a store meeting). If the idea is to get people to lower their scores on these criteria, then shouldn't the discount be aimed towards people who are doing that, rather than people who are already there? E.g., if my cholesterol is high because I'm eating pizza rolls, because I can't afford fresh fruit and veg that often, then how does this program help me achieve that? Wouldn't it make more sense to offer a high discount as a goal state to those who meet certain health criteria (not necessarily the ones above), but offer an increased discount to TMs who are working on improving their health by working out at the gym, or such things? That discount might encourage them to eat more healthily while also offsetting some of the costs of such a membership.
4. But really, the thing that makes me look at this and say "Dude, seriously?" is the fact that we had one person score in the platinum level, one person score in the gold level, one in the silver, and about ten in the bronze. I think I know who the gold was, and I know that I'm the silver. ::considers self, considers teammates:: Really? There's no way that I'm the third healthiest person in that store. But as the housemates suggested last night, I could probably get a book deal out of it: The Bacon, Beer, and Car Bumper Sauce Diet.
This entry was originally posted at http://wayfarer.dreamwidth.org/5154.html, which is way better than LJ. Please comment there using OpenID or your DW account.