don's report archive

by Donald B. Ardell, Ph. D.

Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)

It's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.
Fielding Mellish, the hapless revolutionary in Woody Allen's "Bananas."

Some people get very worked up at any hint that employers should make healthy lifestyles a key determinant in hiring decisions. They claim such an outrageous idea would be a travesty of fair play, a mockery of this or a sham of that and so on, in the style of Allen's Fielding Mellish. Yet, companies may soon not be able to do otherwise! American business organizations are not welfare agencies or otherwise obligated to do good, first and foremost. Rather, they exist to produce goods and services in an efficient, competitive manner in a capitalist society. If they consistently hire overweight smokers who are sedentary, stressed and otherwise incompetent at lifestyle management, their health insurance costs will overtake all other efforts at profitability and they will fail. Thus, hiring the unwell or those sure to become unwell in due time is bad business--very bad business. My advice to human resource administrators and other personnel types--hire the wellest of the well. Do otherwise and your company is doomed.

Of course, it's probably illegal to do this in an out-front, no holds barred "that's the way it is, period" fashion. Chances are there are laws that bar discriminating against overweight smokers who are sedentary, stressed and otherwise incompetent at lifestyle management. This is a matter for teams of lawyers to contemplate, debate and no doubt litigate, but ways must be found to keep companies from ruin due to self-destructive employee lifestyles. Cost conscious managers will surely favor job candidates who meet the usual criteria for positions who also can be counted n to look after themselves properly. Health insurance, sick leave and disability insurance attributed just to employee obesity nationwide cost an estimated $12.7 billion in 2002, according to one source (American Journal of Health Promotion.) Thus, rather than discriminating against candidates who are lifestyle sickos, companies can find ways to reward those who are lifestyle artists, or at least those who evidence a willingness to take responsibility for the quality of their lives and thereby help companies to mitigate their health insurance expenses.

If you are planning to be a job candidate, you better live a wellness lifestyle! Before long, no company will be able to afford employees who are NOT doing so! According to health policy expert Gail Wilensky, in 1990 American companies spent $177 billion on health benefits for workers and their dependents; by 1996, such spending increased to $252 billion, more than double the rate of inflation. Wilensky: "Who pays for the rising costs of health insurance? Employees, consumers and taxpayers pay. Businesses pass along a portion of rising premiums to their workforces in the form of lower wage increases. Companies add the cost of the fringe benefits, including health insurance, to the price of their products and services. Government programs pay 47 percent of the health care tab in the U.S.; spending on health care makes up 20 percent of the federal budget, and most state budgets too. If you paid $5,000 in taxes last year, around $1,000 went to health care programs. (Source: http://www.nchc.org.)

While being able to get a job is pretty important, it is still not the best reason to live a wellness lifestyle. The positive returns from being fit, responsible and otherwise well and proactive are their own rewards. The real "travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham" is that the promotion of wellness mindsets and perspectives is not the norm in America. The promotion of and cultural supports for wellness lifestyles ought to be ingrained in all government policies, educational systems and corporate values. Regrettably, this is not the case--lifestyle mediocrity is the standard in the absence of a conscious national goal of support for healthy lifestyles at all levels.

While society might be a mess, you can do your part. Live wisely and in doing so gain all the benefits of a wellness lifestyle AND make yourself a far more attractive candidate for future employment. Be well, and look on the bright side of life.

(Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of lifestyle habits. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)

(Ed. Note: Views expressed in this and other columns are those of the author and not necessarily those of the SeekWellness Editorial Board.)

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