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Fitbit Wants To Help Corporations Track Employee Health
jfruh writes: Fitbit is pitching its iconic fitness trackers to businesses as a tool to save money on health care costs. Many companies have wellness programs to encourage workers to exercise more, and Fitbit will help employers quantify (and monitor) employee progress. “We think virtually every company will incorporate fitness trackers into their corporate wellness programs,” Fitbit CFO Bill Zerella said
That's what always creeps me out about any sort of "employee wellness" programs in the workplace. There is an all-too-fine line between an optional program with fun rewards and a de facto mandatory program with harsh punishments.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Maybe they can come monitor my food when I'm at home or out about town, too?
And maybe they can monitor when I wake and sleep.
And maybe monitor what kind of air I breath in my part of town.
And maybe they can just get a direct pipe into all my medical records? I mean, since apparently we give no fucks anymore, right?
I have a better idea: You hire me to do a fucking job and I'll do the fucking job and we'll leave our involvement with each other right fucking there.
"They know when you've been sleeping,
They know when you're awake,
They know when you've been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake."
And who says childhood never ends?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
...and yet many companies use United Healthcare, which has this neat little program where nicotine users (cigs, dip, vape, whatever) get to pay an extra $70/mo. for their health insurance, and if your spouse smokes? That'll be $140/mo that you get pay, please.
Oh, you don't partake and claim yourself exempt? You get random annual bodily-fluid testing where you get to prove that you're nicotine-free.
Did I mention that if caught smoking when you said you didn't? You get fired for-cause.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Your logical fallacy is strawman.
No one ever said anything about tracking you at home, or while away from the office. Meanwhile, study after study after study continually show that sitting all day, per the office drone norms, is terrible for you.
Wearing a little watch-sized gizmo that tells you to get up and stretch your legs every few hours is hardly the most Orwellian oversight I can imagine. And really, the company has entirely pragmatic reasons for the idea, beyond BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING. Simply put: healthier employees are cost effective. You'll take less surprise sick days; even if your total days off work remain constant, you'll have more vacation time which is planned in advance. You'll also be in a generally better mood, less bitching about how much your back is killing you
Oh, and we already do have a shady organization tracking the air you breathe. It's called the fucking EPA.
This signature is false.
Obamacare Bugzilla
Bug 7863763
Subject: employer and government now have reason to interfere in every aspect of my life
Status: Confirmed, Won't Fix
Last maintainer comment: "Works as intended."