Page 16 | Work forcing walks

CaramelCandle · 2021-02-24T13:08:31+00:00

My whole team is wfh. The manager has decided that everyone needs to walk 1000 steps a day on their lunch hour for the next month. We've been put into teams and have to record the steps and the team with the most will win a half day off. There were a few people not keen to take part but everyone has been put into a team anyway. AIBU to think this is stupid? I understand the idea is to get people away from their desk etc but it's the way it's been done so that you're letting your team down if you don't take part that I think is unfair. Surely it would be better to give people a choice without the guilt.

ekidmxcl · 24/02/2021 16:56

Get the phone on a bloody length of string to get the steps.

Badabingbadabum · 24/02/2021 16:58

I'd love to walk 1000 steps at lunchtime but that is when I take a break to give dc lunch, put youngest one down for a nap and give the eldest a bit of my time without doing my work at the same time. I know that's just a rant! But workplaces trying to enforce teamworking really annoys me!

BlueSoop · 24/02/2021 16:58

Is frightening how reliant people are becoming on being as immobile as possible
Is it so hard for you to understand that some people are physically unable to walk?! This policy is discriminatory against them because they don’t have an equal chance of winning the prize.

FireflyRainbow · 24/02/2021 16:59

My lunch break is giving my kids lunch. Got one with sickness and diorhea atm can't really leave them him home alone to go for a walk. Shake your phone op.

mathanxiety · 24/02/2021 16:59

I’ve not said promotion should be based on participation in discriminatory team building activities. Engagement with your team was my expression, engagement doesn’t mean your capacity to undertake 1000 steps a day nor attend strips clubs

@actanonverba22

Well we may be making progress here after all, with the employee rights 'thesaurus'. Or maybe not.

Let's tease this out a little more, because obviously there is still a disconnect between what you said and what you think you meant:
Engagement, continual development for yourself and the team is essential to succeed.

Are you trying to say you can have something akin to an ‘I’m alright Jack’ mentality and be promoted?

If 'engagement' is 'essential' to 'succeed', what is to stop a manager deciding that going to strip clubs constitutes 'engagement essential to succeed'?

Is refusal to go to a strip club with the lads and the manager from work the same as an 'I'm alright Jack attitude'?

TurquoiseDragon · 24/02/2021 16:59

@megletsecond

It sounds a bit "enforced fun" and they can't force you. But 1000 steps in lunch is pretty basic self care. You can't be sedentary for 7hrs a day. I wall / run before work, in my lunch and after work. I'm totally bored with it but just want to get through this in one piece.

I'm not sedentary for 7 hours a day.

I wfh, but I'm up and down getting drinks, going to an upstairs bathroom, doing things around the house and still manage to make a really good work output.

I sometimes go out shoping at lunch, but I also like to stay in and do chores on other days. I still wouldn't want to feel coerced into this.

thelittlestrhino · 24/02/2021 17:00

@littlefireseverywhere

I actually think it's a really good idea, encouraging people to move. Perhaps they could encourage you to do it during the working day but as they're giving the winning team time off, I'd make sure I was doing all I could to get my team high numbers. There are some really creative ways above to do those if you're not interested. Of course, those who have mobility or mental health issues that may prevent it need to be excluded but the idea in principle is a sound one.

Yeah, lets just exclude the people with mobility and mental health issues

A sound idea in principle would be one which wasn't discriminatory or exclude anyone

AccidentallyOnPurpose · 24/02/2021 17:00

@JesusAteMyHamster

Its hardly a hike to the Arctic

it's a half a mile walk. You can do that in under 10 minutes if you pick your speed up.

If anything more office type environments should encourage this. Is frightening how reliant people are becoming on being as immobile as possible.

Funny how they don't feel it needs enough encouragement to be paying for it.

thelittlestrhino · 24/02/2021 17:01

@JesusAteMyHamster

Its hardly a hike to the Arctic

it's a half a mile walk. You can do that in under 10 minutes if you pick your speed up.

If anything more office type environments should encourage this. Is frightening how reliant people are becoming on being as immobile as possible.

You can do that in 10 minutes? Great.

Not everyone is you though, have you not realised that?

actanonverba22 · 24/02/2021 17:02

@mathanxiety great example of a straw man argument there

unmarkedbythat · 24/02/2021 17:02

If they want so very much to encourage people to be active then they can ask people to be active during work time. They don't get any say in how we spend our non work time.

I walk loads. I work at a huge site, it takes more than 1000 steps to get from my office to X building that I often need to visit. I don't drive so walk to and from bus stops. I go up and down stairs all the time. I choose to go out running (actually its stretch to call what I do running, it's more lumbering in an ungainly fashion). If my work brought this silly policy in I would be really annoyed.

mathanxiety · 24/02/2021 17:03

my work (during non covid times) signed up for all sorts of things. the most memorable being the dragon boat race and the "its a knockout' competition.

both of which you had to be physically fit for. i took part in both one year. both of these on a saturday which took me away from dh and the dc. work realised this and gave everyone who chose to compete an additional days leave.

Yes, of course both are disablist.

Also sexist because of the disproportionate burden of pregnancy and breastfeeding that falls on women.

It favoured those who did not have caring responsibilities either to aged parents or children.

Can you honestly not see the problems, @ememem84?

Yerra · 24/02/2021 17:03

I can't see that OP mentioned in her 1st post about disabilities. I clearly said do if you want to do and dont if you don't want (if you are disabled, it is understandable to not participate depending on the disability but disabled people can be the first to rise to some of these challenges so never knock disabled people!). Surely we don't have to be complaining about a little challenge. Unfortunately the attitude of lots of people now is to always find a problem and to not see the good. the world now just wants to winge. The fact this has 15 pages shows this.

LittleGwyneth · 24/02/2021 17:05

If it's voluntary that's a lovely idea, if it's forced it's fucking horrible.

JustLyra · 24/02/2021 17:06

@JustLyra in the eyes of the employer there is no opting out. but this doesn't mean the op has to do it. she just tells the employer that she isn't doing it. i'm going to assume that if the op's team had marathon runners in it who regularly ran 10 k at lunchtime and had no caring responsibilities then it would be ok to be "carried" by them? the op notes that its the team who does the most steps over the month. so just doing 1000 isn't going to generate a winner. if every team is say 6, and every team does the 1000 steps. then everyone wins. which sort of takes the challenge out of it.

The obligation from the employer is the discriminatory bit...

It's clear that the team with the least disabled people and/or the team with the least children at home under their case (so quite probably the team with the most men) and the likes are going to win the reward. So people with disabilities, ill health or caring responsibilities are going to be directly discriminated against by their employer and they potentially face the ire of their colleagues for it being their "fault" that the rest of their team won't win.

that said 1000 steps in an hour in the house wouldn't be that hard.

For you.

For others it will be hard. Or even impossible. And that's the point

MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously · 24/02/2021 17:06

Not sure if it's been mentioned but they aren't actually giving anyone an extra half day off if they've already commandeered your lunch hours.
I would just not do it - they are seriously overstepping.

Craftycorvid · 24/02/2021 17:07

Wow! I’d be digging my heels in so hard, they’d have to use a shovel to get me out....and I’m saying this as someone who loves walking. Really bad psychology on the part of your workplace as anyone who doesn’t want to take part (or can’t) penalises others -yeah, great team building there!

Flapjak · 24/02/2021 17:08

Its the principle of forcing you to do something that is not your job description. It should be done under a wellbeing suggestion for anyone that wants to participate

LunaHeather · 24/02/2021 17:08

@MrsHuntGeneNotJeremyObviously

Not sure if it's been mentioned but they aren't actually giving anyone an extra half day off if they've already commandeered your lunch hours. I would just not do it - they are seriously overstepping.

Excellent point and excellent pun 😂

unmarkedbythat · 24/02/2021 17:08

@Yerra

I can't see that OP mentioned in her 1st post about disabilities. I clearly said do if you want to do and dont if you don't want (if you are disabled, it is understandable to not participate depending on the disability but disabled people can be the first to rise to some of these challenges so never knock disabled people!). Surely we don't have to be complaining about a little challenge. Unfortunately the attitude of lots of people now is to always find a problem and to not see the good. the world now just wants to winge. The fact this has 15 pages shows this.

I don't want to whinge. I do think it is wrong of employers to try to dictate the activity levels of their employees in non work time, and to try to motivate them to engage in activity during their non work time by linking it to work related rewards. I also think it is just plain mean not to give employees paid time to undertake this activity.

This is not "a little challenge" that having issues with makes you a whinger with a poor attitude. It is discriminatory. My employers can dictate what I do at work: outside of work whether I run 10k or sit on the sofa binging on Netflix and crisps is none of their business, and I find it inappropriate that they wish to have even this level of involvement in their employees use of non working time.

JustLyra · 24/02/2021 17:09

@ememem84

my work (during non covid times) signed up for all sorts of things. the most memorable being the dragon boat race and the "its a knockout' competition.

both of which you had to be physically fit for. i took part in both one year. both of these on a saturday which took me away from dh and the dc. work realised this and gave everyone who chose to compete an additional days leave.

i'm going to assume that this would also be classed by some as disablist.

Well yes it would be classed as disablist, because it is.

work realised this and gave everyone who chose to compete an additional days leave.

Did your work also realise that anyone with physical disabilites, illnesses or caring responsibilities they couldn't pass to anyone else were not choosing not to compete, but were unable to do so and give them an additional days leave as well?

Because if they didn't it was discriminatory and disablist.

sunflowersandbuttercups · 24/02/2021 17:10

@JesusAteMyHamster

Its hardly a hike to the Arctic

it's a half a mile walk. You can do that in under 10 minutes if you pick your speed up.

If anything more office type environments should encourage this. Is frightening how reliant people are becoming on being as immobile as possible.

Absolutely they should encourage it.

But if they were truly encouraging it, they'd be doing it in paid working hours.

AccidentallyOnPurpose · 24/02/2021 17:10

@Yerra

I can't see that OP mentioned in her 1st post about disabilities. I clearly said do if you want to do and dont if you don't want (if you are disabled, it is understandable to not participate depending on the disability but disabled people can be the first to rise to some of these challenges so never knock disabled people!). Surely we don't have to be complaining about a little challenge. Unfortunately the attitude of lots of people now is to always find a problem and to not see the good. the world now just wants to winge. The fact this has 15 pages shows this.

There is nothing good about employers deciding what employees should do in their free time. The activity is irrelevant.

JustLyra · 24/02/2021 17:11

You have to wonder about the calibre of manager who comes up with a disablist and potentially divisise idea that they then have the ego to demand their staff carry out in their own time.

homesickinscotland · 24/02/2021 17:12

I wouldn't mind doing steps for a challenge at work and am actually keen to get my steps up but I would very much resent being forced to do it, and taking up my own lunch hour to do it. If I was doing it on work time, fine, but my free time is my own and I can spend it how I like! If I want to sit on the sofa reading a book that's my decision.