When does it end ?

The hole where doughnuts used to be

Wednesday 23 March 2011

Innocent snacks in the workplace could fall victim to the Lib-Cons’ outsourcing of moral busybodiness. 

Is the humble office doughnut facing extinction? According to a headline in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper last month, ‘employers have a duty to “nudge” staff into shape’. Britain’s Lib-Con coalition government is expected to privatise many services, but outsourcing state moralising about healthy lifestyles to your boss is a step too far.

The Telegraph was reporting on the Public Health Responsibility Deal, which was launched on 15 March and is – according to the Guardian – at the heart of the coalition government’s public health policy. The Health At Work Network is among five working groups developing pledges for the deal, which companies and charities have been asked to sign up for.

As it goes, a variety of groups – from anti-drinking campaigners to the British Medical Association – has refused to endorse the Responsibility Deal on the grounds that the proposals have made too many concessions to business. But the real problem lies with the principles behind the government’s plans.

While plans to change food and alcohol labels have received considerable attention, changes in the workplace have had less coverage. The Health At Work Network shows the state will no longer be satisfied simply to lecture us, as New Labour did, or ‘nudge’ us into state-approved behaviour. Now they want to outsource busybodying to bosses. Or, in the Network’s own words, ‘help employers use the workplace to improve the health of their employees’ and ‘help people at work lead healthier lifestyles’.

Some of the proposals are focused on dealing with chronic conditions like back pain or mental health. But there’s plenty of petty lifestyle management, too. According to the Telegraph, this will include: making healthier foods available at work; reducing the fat, salt and energy content of meals; providing ‘responsibly sized’ portions; and displaying calorie and nutritional information. So it’s ‘bye, bye’ to irresponsible doughnuts, crisps and fizzy drinks, and ‘hello’ to fresh fruit and water.

There’s international precedent for this kind of thing. In 2008, the Japanese government introduced laws forcing employers to pressurise their employees into losing weight. If their chubby staff fail to slim down, these firms face financial penalties (see The perils of being big in Japan, by Basham and Luik).

The trouble with the state giving your employer a licence to ‘nudge’ is that your employers are not your parents. Mothers are expected to worry about kids’ diets, but the employer-employee relationship is an agreement to work in exchange for money. Provided you deliver work to a decent standard, your lifestyle should be your own business.

What’s more, employment contracts assume you’re a grown-up, able to choose where to sell your labour. Plans to nudge people into shape assume that Joe Public is a childlike food-and-booze junkie who needs to be tricked into going for a light stroll using high-tech behavioral science.

Asking employers to treat their staff like infants changes the dynamic between employers and employees in a dangerous way. It seems ridiculous that your boss would trust you to handle nuclear waste or put out fires when government public health policy assumes you can’t eat an apple at your desk without corporate help.

Read the rest at http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/10321/