From Donna’s Desk

Our Corporate Wellness Initiative is fatally flawed.

It assumes the problem is that we are not breathing hard enough.

In theory, I support wellness. I support rest. I support reflection. I support thriving. I would love to thrive. Put it on my calendar. Send an invite.

In practice, corporate wellness often arrives the way corporate everything arrives: As a well-intentioned idea wrapped in a requirement to document it.

That’s the part that fascinates me.

Someone, somewhere, looked at “taking a breath” and thought, “Great. Now let’s add a log.”

Because we cannot simply do a human thing. We have to turn it into a system. Then a program. Then a metric. Then a report that proves we are calmer now.

And if you are a person who already has anxiety, the promise of wellness turns into a new category of stress.

Not “Take a moment.”
More like: “Take a moment and also track it, categorize it, and be prepared to justify your moment in Q2.”

Wellness becomes another way to perform.

So here’s my unofficial guidance, which is also, for legal reasons, not official guidance.

If you’re trying to breathe, start with the important ones.

Not the perfect ones. Not the documented ones. Not the ones that make the tracker happy.

Just the ones that keep you here.

If your workplace wellness initiative makes you feel worse, you’re not failing wellness. Wellness is failing you.

And if you need permission to ignore a log so you can remember you are a living being and not a dashboard, consider this your permission.

Donna

If you know someone who would enjoy this workplace wellness tracking comic, feel free to pass it along. Sharing is the one thing that doesn't require documentation.

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