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Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

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Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#71

Post by lelanthran »

danpalmer wrote: post #66
craig_asp wrote: post #5

Every time someone (usually someone from HR) tries to point out how great a company is because of its great perks like awesome couching sessions (not actual training), great team-building events, the best coffee machine ever, table tennis, etc. and how these somehow compensate for a subpar salary offer, I tell them: you just pay me well, give me more time off, and I'll handle all that myself.

This is true, but I'd rather have an office with tea/coffee, a drinks fridge, etc, than the extra salary that the company is spending on providing that. In part I'm paying 40% in tax so if I'm going to buy coffees it's actually more effective to have them provided by the company. But in general, that sort of convenience and benefit is often worth more than the monetary value. Tea/coffee in the office is very differen…

> In part I'm paying 40% in tax so if I'm going to buy coffees it's actually more effective to have them provided by the company. But in general, that sort of convenience and benefit is often worth more than the monetary value.

I actually started of my working career as a factory worker (nightshift, 12 hour shifts, seven days a week). It was customary to bring along a flask of coffee and a packed lunch.

Right now, even though we have company-provided coffee, I'd rather they just give me the money to bring a flask of my own coffee.

It's more convenient, I get to make a trade-off between quality and cost as the situation calls for it, I get to switch coffees if I need to.

In current reality, though, you are correct - overall it's cheaper for the company to provide coffee instead of giving you the marginal cost of the coffee you consume. I just wanted to provide an alternative viewpoint.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#72

Post by lelanthran »

toxik wrote: post #10
teddyh wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> awesome couching sessions Did you mean “coaching”? Or is “couching” some new SV term I am unfamiliar with?

A good couching session relaxes even the most stressed up worker

> A good couching session relaxes even the most stressed up worker

Depends on which side of the couch you are, I expect. The couchers (couch-workers?) probably do get stressed by providing couching sessions 8 hours a day.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#73

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

b0rsuk wrote: post #14

> The real problem with workplace wellness initiatives, according to Katie—beyond being inconvenient and vapid—is their obvious attempt to make up for the company’s poor employee benefits. ‘ The real problem is, wellness seminars are an attempt to push the issue on the employees. Just like "plastic recycling" initiatives push the guilt and the effort onto the consumer. It's a redirection strategy.

Same with "Self-care" - are you burning out at your job? Do you need a break? Clearly it's because you are failing at "self-care", not because your job is stressful or unreasonable. It pushes the onus back on the worker to put up with whatever the job demands and frames the worker as the one failing.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#75

Post by danpalmer »

lelanthran wrote: post #71
danpalmer wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true, but I'd rather have an office with tea/coffee, a drinks fridge, etc, than the extra salary that the company is spending on providing that. In part I'm paying 40% in tax so if I'm going to buy coffees it's actually more effective to have them provided by the company. But in general, that sort of convenience and benefit is often worth more than the monetary value. Tea/coffee in the office is very differen…

> In part I'm paying 40% in tax so if I'm going to buy coffees it's actually more effective to have them provided by the company. But in general, that sort of convenience and benefit is often worth more than the monetary value. I actually started of my working career as a factory worker (nightshift, 12 hour shifts, seven days a week). It was customary to bring along a flask of coffee and a packed lunch. Right now, ev…

I completely agree – this all depends on the company, the people, the environment, everything.

I just think that saying "just give me the money" in all cases is a) not necessarily efficient, and b) glosses over the idea that a benefit can be worth more to people than the monetary value.

It can also be worth more to the employer! The UK government don't provide tea/coffee typically because it all ends up on public record and there's a perception that the media will be outraged if the government spent £10k on tea bags, even if that might be a perfectly reasonable expense across tens of thousands of employees (made up numbers, not important). The result is that in some offices you get contractors being paid £800 a day taking a 15 minute break to go down to the shop to buy milk for their tea, or to get a coffee from a coffee shop, costing far more than it would cost to just have some available in the office.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#76

Post by [deleted] »

granshaw wrote: post #67
barrkel wrote: post #57

Wellbeing, even when it's sincere, is a top-down effort - as in way up the tree-tops - and usually raining down diagonally from a different org. Meanwhile, down on the leaves of the org tree, you have delivery pressure from users, peers, and so on. If the pressure is high, no amount of messaging about wellbeing will make any difference. Taking time off, whether it's some kind of leave or for some wellbeing meetings o…

Let me tell you, delivery pressure exists even right at the very top. You think there’s no pressure as a CEO/COO beholden to 30% top line growth this quarter? I sometimes think about being in that position and it seems pretty scary too

[deleted]

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#77

Post by inter_netuser »

granshaw wrote: post #67
barrkel wrote: post #57

Wellbeing, even when it's sincere, is a top-down effort - as in way up the tree-tops - and usually raining down diagonally from a different org. Meanwhile, down on the leaves of the org tree, you have delivery pressure from users, peers, and so on. If the pressure is high, no amount of messaging about wellbeing will make any difference. Taking time off, whether it's some kind of leave or for some wellbeing meetings o…

Let me tell you, delivery pressure exists even right at the very top. You think there’s no pressure as a CEO/COO beholden to 30% top line growth this quarter? I sometimes think about being in that position and it seems pretty scary too

I’ll take it with a golden parachute.

Why not? Can’t lose.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#78

Post by mtberatwork »

wiz21c wrote: post #64
kumarvvr wrote: post #23

Workplace wellbeing Wholesome workplace Workplace is a family and a myriad of other touchy-feely terms are just plain bullshit. Whole industries have cropped up to support the efforts of managements to keep workforces in control and deflect resentment (people don't leave companies, they leave managers ! and other crap) The ground reality is when the company feels you are not needed, all that touch-feely stuff goes do…

I totally agree. I mean, nobody cares that I agree. But I have been hurt so much by all that bullshit that readin your comment makes me better. Now I have this question for all the HR departments who engage in spreading those "touchy feely" terms : either you do realize that there's a problem with that, then why do you go on spreading it OR you don't realize there's a problem, then why do you feel those terms are acc…

I believe from the company's perspective it's viewed as a mechanism for reducing insurances costs.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#79

Post by fogihujy »

svenghopeful wrote: post #58

As a somewhat outside observer (socially liberal/democrat country, in SWE but outside of VC/Silicon Valley/FAANG - for now!), I wonder if the community think the rise in "F** you, pay me"[1][2] sentiment will be mediated in any way? I can definitely see the rise of this feeling with record profits, sky high stock prices, big Venture Funding rounds paired with rising income inequality it makes sense. If a group of wor…

I haven't been in Sweden for a while, but in Finland there's large headlines about a major shortage of tech workers, but based on what I've seen it's basically tech workers changing careers because they are:

1) fed up with useless benefits 2) get no possibilities for developing their skills while on the job 3) are expected to work unpaid overtime for wages that won't pay the rent in the larger cities

I've no idea how it will end to be honest, but I suspect there'll be a lot of buzz about it once post-COVID hiring starts.

Re: Workplace Wellbeing Is a Scam?

#80

Post by heisenbit »

I thought not much about this corporate wellbeing stuff until Corona. Then decisions my employer made started directly affecting my chances for survival. My employer was surprisingly proactive and protective very unlike the one of my wife.

This wellness spam is virtue signaling. Whether it is truly based on values becomes only visible when the boundaries are tested.

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