It had to come to this. If people want someone else to take responsibility for their healthcare costs like a mother dispensing a fat allowance, then mommy nagging to get the chores done was the next logical step.
Damn I would have loved it if I could have gotten decent food from the wheel of death at my last job. Luckily there was a Trader Joe's within walking distance.
This kind of foolishness is ubiquitous in Silicon Valley. Northern California is the acme of minding other people's business, and I was plagued with an HR Nazi and senior management who took great pleasure in hectoring employees about their eating and smoking habits. Many employees developed hostility for the company over this.
I was a senior buyer for a tech company and had trouble retaining vending machine and catering companies because the HR Director insisted on approving all foods served to employees. Food suppliers would quit us even if we paid them a premium to provide food that would ultimately be thrown away.
The irony is that employers who serve free or discounted food do so to keep high-cost employees sitting at their desks and working. Two dollars' worth of food is a bargain to keep a salaried employee at his desk for two more hours per day. When our employees began to leave the building for lunch due to restricted food choices, productivity dropped.
For the record, I am neither a smoker nor an obese person. My concern is that management talks out of both sides of its mouth on this issue. They encourage people to spend as many hours working as possible but complain when their sedentary employees put on weight and drive up insurance costs. Insulting employees' intelligence by implying that they don't know what's good for them is likely to backfire, especially if they gained weight by working extra time to meet production quotas.
I'll say it again; I would gladly sign away all my health insurance in exchange for my free will.
Continuing along on this path, I hate to think what it will be like in twenty or thirty years when the sweet sweet vices that make life worth living have been eliminated and every aspect of our lives are dictated by some kind of puritanical public health bureaucrat.
So yeah, I'm with you; they'll have to kill me before they'll be able to take my greasy ass hamburgers, cigarettes, and six pack. And companies who think that they can dictate to the personal habits of their employees can take their jobs and stuff them.
A lot of foods are flammable. I even seem to remember that the definition of a calorie has something to do with the substance ability to raise the temperature of water when burned. That's going way back to high school classes though so the memories funny.
In any case, I imagine some/many beverages are flammable. And I've seen plenty of flammable foods, and not just the alcohol soaked ones... Nearly everytime I slap a hamburger on top of a flamming grill the flames get a lot bigger from all that tasty dripping grease.
That being said, after having a relative who works for frito lay lavish me with boxes upon boxes of various chips, including fritos, I've developed a taste that finds fritos are way too much flavor by themselves. I need something bland like taco salad, chili baked potato or something similar to crush them up on top of to eat them.
I agree with STC... at some point, all of the nagging and "nudging" and taxing and fining and etc... will get to the point where anything and everything is carefully monitored for any possible risk or harm and life becomes a dreary and bleak existence.
People who don't have a weight problem don't really understand how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off or they wouldn't be so willing to punish fat people any way they can.
Imagine, if you will, being an alcoholic. Now imagine that you are required to go to a bar every other day and have one drink. Now imagine how hard it might be to avoid drinking to excess... If only I could go cold turkey on food.
EI, have you tried Seth Roberts' Shangri La diet? I haven't really used it, though I have started taking flax seed oil, but I read the book and was pretty impressed by the science. Its whole point is to tamp down the appetite system, not impose an unrealistic regime of self-denial.
I don't think they are searching your desk for you secret stockpile of Fritos and Wheat Thins. Products you could purchase, say when you did your grocery shopping, and the bring to work on your own. This has an added benefit of saving you money. I realize MM was being tongue in cheek but if I'm going to spend some energy fighting the man (aka HR) it isn't going to be over what free food the offer me or what the stock the vending machines. I would however form an insurgency to get a decent cup of coffee.
It had to come to this. If people want someone else to take responsibility for their healthcare costs like a mother dispensing a fat allowance, then mommy nagging to get the chores done was the next logical step.
Damn I would have loved it if I could have gotten decent food from the wheel of death at my last job. Luckily there was a Trader Joe's within walking distance.
Honestly, people aren't aware of healthy foods. Greek yogurt people! Manna from the gods!
This kind of foolishness is ubiquitous in Silicon Valley. Northern California is the acme of minding other people's business, and I was plagued with an HR Nazi and senior management who took great pleasure in hectoring employees about their eating and smoking habits. Many employees developed hostility for the company over this.
I was a senior buyer for a tech company and had trouble retaining vending machine and catering companies because the HR Director insisted on approving all foods served to employees. Food suppliers would quit us even if we paid them a premium to provide food that would ultimately be thrown away.
The irony is that employers who serve free or discounted food do so to keep high-cost employees sitting at their desks and working. Two dollars' worth of food is a bargain to keep a salaried employee at his desk for two more hours per day. When our employees began to leave the building for lunch due to restricted food choices, productivity dropped.
For the record, I am neither a smoker nor an obese person. My concern is that management talks out of both sides of its mouth on this issue. They encourage people to spend as many hours working as possible but complain when their sedentary employees put on weight and drive up insurance costs. Insulting employees' intelligence by implying that they don't know what's good for them is likely to backfire, especially if they gained weight by working extra time to meet production quotas.
Fritos? why would you eat ethanol chips? try lighting a frito with a match - you could replace all the candles in your house.
Ugh, how dreadful.
I'll say it again; I would gladly sign away all my health insurance in exchange for my free will.
Continuing along on this path, I hate to think what it will be like in twenty or thirty years when the sweet sweet vices that make life worth living have been eliminated and every aspect of our lives are dictated by some kind of puritanical public health bureaucrat.
So yeah, I'm with you; they'll have to kill me before they'll be able to take my greasy ass hamburgers, cigarettes, and six pack. And companies who think that they can dictate to the personal habits of their employees can take their jobs and stuff them.
Because they're delicious!
I'm also pretty fond of ethanol.
Uh Dent,
A lot of foods are flammable. I even seem to remember that the definition of a calorie has something to do with the substance ability to raise the temperature of water when burned. That's going way back to high school classes though so the memories funny.
In any case, I imagine some/many beverages are flammable. And I've seen plenty of flammable foods, and not just the alcohol soaked ones... Nearly everytime I slap a hamburger on top of a flamming grill the flames get a lot bigger from all that tasty dripping grease.
That being said, after having a relative who works for frito lay lavish me with boxes upon boxes of various chips, including fritos, I've developed a taste that finds fritos are way too much flavor by themselves. I need something bland like taco salad, chili baked potato or something similar to crush them up on top of to eat them.
I agree with STC... at some point, all of the nagging and "nudging" and taxing and fining and etc... will get to the point where anything and everything is carefully monitored for any possible risk or harm and life becomes a dreary and bleak existence.
People who don't have a weight problem don't really understand how hard it is to lose weight and keep it off or they wouldn't be so willing to punish fat people any way they can.
Imagine, if you will, being an alcoholic. Now imagine that you are required to go to a bar every other day and have one drink. Now imagine how hard it might be to avoid drinking to excess... If only I could go cold turkey on food.
EI, have you tried Seth Roberts' Shangri La diet? I haven't really used it, though I have started taking flax seed oil, but I read the book and was pretty impressed by the science. Its whole point is to tamp down the appetite system, not impose an unrealistic regime of self-denial.
I don't think they are searching your desk for you secret stockpile of Fritos and Wheat Thins. Products you could purchase, say when you did your grocery shopping, and the bring to work on your own. This has an added benefit of saving you money. I realize MM was being tongue in cheek but if I'm going to spend some energy fighting the man (aka HR) it isn't going to be over what free food the offer me or what the stock the vending machines. I would however form an insurgency to get a decent cup of coffee.