Healthy Lifestyles

During my usual morning perusal of the news wire, I came across a story about yet another company proclaiming that it will begin to terminate employees if they continue to smoke cigarettes, an act that is legally protected in 21 states. The Miracle-Gro corporation says that this new policy is part of a "healthy living" initiative designed to lower the company's health care cost burden. I am concerned that the growing number of companies adopting similar policies will set a dangerous precedent with regards to worker's rights.

Before I get into my thoughts about this trend, I should say that I fully support a company's right to hire employees under terms of "understood acceptable behaviors". During the hiring process, any company should be able to hand a prospective employee a sheet of acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, and give the prospective employee a choice as to whether or not said employee is willing to live under those terms while an employee of the company. Signing the agreement would be considered consent, and being caught violating the agreement could be grounds for termination. If a company does not want to hire smokers, drinkers, fatties, cancer patients, pregnant women, etc., then they should not be forced to. I do find it unacceptable for a company to create a new "acceptable behavior" policy, and then apply it retroactively to existing employees.

I also support a company's right to dictate behavior on its premises, and have no problem with applying such a policy to all employees at any time. "As of x-date, sleeping, smoking, imbibing alcohol, engaging in sexual activities of any kind, listening to music, surfing Craigslist, and consuming non-kosher foodstuffs will no longer be permitted on the company property". This is totally acceptable in my eyes, although this may make the employees very unhappy.

My first thought about such a policy is that this is a brilliant spin on a policy designed to generally lower a company's cost of doing business. Under the guise of saving money on health care costs, this gives a company grounds to terminate tenured employees and replace them with new employees at lower salaries, thus providing the company with a double savings. Using such a precedent, whom else could a company suddenly terminate by expanding upon the number of behaviors that do not fall under the heading "healthy lifestyle"?

My biggest concern is that "healthy lifestyle" policies, when applied retroactively to current employees, could be expanded to any employee that poses a risk to higher health care costs. 50 to 75 pounds overweight? Terminated on the grounds that you are likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and suffer joint damage due to your increased weight. Married? Terminated on the grounds that a pregnancy would increase the companies health care costs. Woman in her late 30s/early 40s? Terminated because this demographic runs a 20% risk of developing breast cancer. Like to have a Twinkie with your Super-Sized McDonald's lunch? Terminated on the grounds that such a diet could lead to obesity.

If such policies continue to be protected by law, this could be the beginning of yet another attack on workers rights, one that would contribute to a further decline of an already embattled middle class while simultaneously strengthening corporate rights to act without regard of the best interests on their employees.

Here and Now

You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you expect or hope for. There have never been past warriors, nor will there be future warriors. The warrior is here, now. Your sorrow, your fear and anger, regret and guilt, your envy, plans, and cravings live only in the past, or in the future. Action only exists in the present, because it is an expression of the body, which can only exist in the here and now. The mind is a phantom that lives only in the past or future. Its only power is to draw your attention out of the present.