Philosophical worksite REAL wellness might be a functional way of describing wellness worksite offerings. They must be interesting, fun, challenging, engaging and relevant to concerns and issues people care about. If some topics generate controversy, all the better. This would be evidence that employees are engaged. Everyone should learn tolerance. Besides promoting reason, exuberance, athleticism and liberty, REAL wellness explorations should relate to, not avoid, politics, sex and religion
So tell me - how many employees do you think would find such REAL wellness unworthy of their time and effort? Does REAL wellness sound boring, illness focused or timid? Evolve worksite wellness in these directions and nearly everyone will sign up - including younger, less-formally educated, lower-paid workers.
Today's form of worksite wellness is medically-oriented. It is not positive, nor is it focused on life skills. What masquerades as wellness is, in reality, omnibus tinkering for cost containment.
Status quo worksite wellness fits several medical categories - illness management, risk reduction, health education and prevention among them. Nothing wrong with any of this, but it's dishonest, a semantic offense, to label it wellness. One problem is that current offerings obfuscate, hinder and delay the introduction of REAL wellness. The 50 percent of employees who refrain from or drop out of programming falsely called wellness think they have experienced wellness education. That is not the case. They have never encountered the real thing. They might well embrace and pursue the authentic real deal.
I'd like to see a transfer of what now takes place as worksite wellness to medical managers. Call it something like medical management for cost containment. If this were done, there would be no confusion. Employees with medical concerns (e.g., weight loss, high blood pressure, etc.) could be attended and supported by health care specialists; a different set of professional educators would promote wellness as the love of wisdom - AKA philosophy.
Philosophy on Offer with Worksite REAL Wellness
Philosophy deals with questions, puzzles and mysteries. It involves reflections about existence, knowledge, justification, truth, justice, right and wrong, beauty and validity, among other matters. It does not dwell on medical issues or cost containment. Worksite education that explored the skills needed for philosophizing, skills such as critical thinking, would not be conducted by those whose training is problem amelioration, treatments and cures. We surely need experts skilled in the medical arts and physical health matters. It is all good that worksites make such services available to employees. However, something else has long been missing at the worksite. That would be the very foundation element of REAL wellness - philosophy.
Why has this not been part of worksite wellness all along? Well, these are not topics for which personnel to staff and design health promotion programs have been recruited. Instead, health has been associated with medical expertise - and thus doctors and nurses and other from healing professions have had the responsibility for promoting health. The results have been predictable.
Further dimming the chances for REAL wellness education was the fact that the primary goal of having worksite wellness in the first place was (and remains) cost containment. Finally, it might be surmised that philosophy has been barred at the plant gates because reason and liberty explorations might (more likely would) prove controversial. Can't stir things up, you know. Companies have not been anxious to stir any passions and the idea of employees engaging in original thinking that jeopardizes the status quo has always seemed unsettling.
The Benefits of Worksite Philosophy
Philosophy invites explorations about the wide world of the humanities that, while not viewed as health issues, certainly affect quality of life which, of course, is very much a health issue. Want greater participation in worksite wellness? Enrich the agenda - add philosophy as part of the offerings. What could matter more than addressing life's great questions, puzzles and mysteries?
I believe philosophical topics, entertaining presented, would attract nearly all segments of the work force - women and men, white and blue collar, varied ethnic groups and so on. No longer would younger, less-formally educated, lower-paid workers reject opportunities to learn for its own sake; no longer would worksite wellness be seen as boring, illness-focused or timid.
How might a company begin the transition to REAL wellness?
REAL Wellness
A good start might be to explore in entertaining ways varied forms of information and activities that could sharpen critical thinking skills, expand horizons, boost enjoyment of life, promote mental endurance and add personal freedoms.
Tastes vary and inclinations are diverse - there are many and diverse best ways to incite such advances. Experiment. Take notes. Proceed where there are calls for more.
Urge the organization to provide offerings that enhance well being for its own sake, not primarily for illness reduction and cost containment purposes. Acknowledge that these outcomes are likely pleasant side effects. Point out the differences in unintended consequences with medications versus REAL wellness. Both have possibilities for unintended consequences, but the former are negative whereas the latter unforeseen side efforts are more likely to be of a beneficial nature. Among these might well be added workforce immunities against illnesses, diseases, stresses and the like. Perhaps. Time will tell.
So tell me - how many employees do you think would find such REAL wellness unworthy of their time and effort? Does REAL wellness sound boring, illness focused or timid? Evolve worksite wellness in these directions and nearly everyone will sign up - including younger, less-formally educated, lower-paid workers.
Today's form of worksite wellness is medically-oriented. It is not positive, nor is it focused on life skills. What masquerades as wellness is, in reality, omnibus tinkering for cost containment.
Status quo worksite wellness fits several medical categories - illness management, risk reduction, health education and prevention among them. Nothing wrong with any of this, but it's dishonest, a semantic offense, to label it wellness. One problem is that current offerings obfuscate, hinder and delay the introduction of REAL wellness. The 50 percent of employees who refrain from or drop out of programming falsely called wellness think they have experienced wellness education. That is not the case. They have never encountered the real thing. They might well embrace and pursue the authentic real deal.
Philosophy on Offer with Worksite REAL Wellness
Philosophy deals with questions, puzzles and mysteries. It involves reflections about existence, knowledge, justification, truth, justice, right and wrong, beauty and validity, among other matters. It does not dwell on medical issues or cost containment. Worksite education that explored the skills needed for philosophizing, skills such as critical thinking, would not be conducted by those whose training is problem amelioration, treatments and cures. We surely need experts skilled in the medical arts and physical health matters. It is all good that worksites make such services available to employees. However, something else has long been missing at the worksite. That would be the very foundation element of REAL wellness - philosophy.
Why has this not been part of worksite wellness all along? Well, these are not topics for which personnel to staff and design health promotion programs have been recruited. Instead, health has been associated with medical expertise - and thus doctors and nurses and other from healing professions have had the responsibility for promoting health. The results have been predictable.
Further dimming the chances for REAL wellness education was the fact that the primary goal of having worksite wellness in the first place was (and remains) cost containment. Finally, it might be surmised that philosophy has been barred at the plant gates because reason and liberty explorations might (more likely would) prove controversial. Can't stir things up, you know. Companies have not been anxious to stir any passions and the idea of employees engaging in original thinking that jeopardizes the status quo has always seemed unsettling.
The Benefits of Worksite Philosophy
Philosophy invites explorations about the wide world of the humanities that, while not viewed as health issues, certainly affect quality of life which, of course, is very much a health issue. Want greater participation in worksite wellness? Enrich the agenda - add philosophy as part of the offerings. What could matter more than addressing life's great questions, puzzles and mysteries?
I believe philosophical topics, entertaining presented, would attract nearly all segments of the work force - women and men, white and blue collar, varied ethnic groups and so on. No longer would younger, less-formally educated, lower-paid workers reject opportunities to learn for its own sake; no longer would worksite wellness be seen as boring, illness-focused or timid.
How might a company begin the transition to REAL wellness?
REAL Wellness
A good start might be to explore in entertaining ways varied forms of information and activities that could sharpen critical thinking skills, expand horizons, boost enjoyment of life, promote mental endurance and add personal freedoms.
Tastes vary and inclinations are diverse - there are many and diverse best ways to incite such advances. Experiment. Take notes. Proceed where there are calls for more.
Urge the organization to provide offerings that enhance well being for its own sake, not primarily for illness reduction and cost containment purposes. Acknowledge that these outcomes are likely pleasant side effects. Point out the differences in unintended consequences with medications versus REAL wellness. Both have possibilities for unintended consequences, but the former are negative whereas the latter unforeseen side efforts are more likely to be of a beneficial nature. Among these might well be added workforce immunities against illnesses, diseases, stresses and the like. Perhaps. Time will tell.
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