別讓健康計劃累垮員工 Healthier workers are those not made ill by their job

Why pay employees to exercise when you can threaten them? That is the somewhat menacing conclusion some people have drawn from a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine last week.

既然可以威脅員工鍛鍊，爲何還要花錢讓他們鍛鍊呢？這是一些人從《內科醫學年鑑》(Annals of Internal Medicine)近日發表的一項研究成果中得出的有點危險的結論。

The researchers challenged a few hundred people to take 7,000 steps a day and offered different incentives to different groups. They discovered that people were much more motivated by the fear of losing money than the hope of earning some.

研究人員要求參加實驗的幾百人每天走7000步，並且對不同的小組實施不同的激勵措施。他們發現，比起想要領到一些錢，害怕被罰錢帶給人們的激勵效果強得多。

For the $6bn corporate “wellness” industry — which aims to cajole employees into being healthier — the implication seems to be clear. Employers should put down carrots and start brandishing sticks.

對於以勸導員工強身健體爲宗旨、規模達60億美元的企業“健康”行業而言，這項研究結果的含意似乎很清楚。僱主應該放下“蘿蔔”，轉而揮舞“大棒”。

The study hit a nerve with me because last year I strapped on an array of gadgets to allow my bosses to track my exercise, heart rate and sleep patterns for a week. Companies were giving these devices to employees as part of their wellness initiatives and I wanted to try one.

這項研究觸及了我的痛處，因爲去年有整整一週的時間，我在身上綁上了一系列小設備，讓我的老闆追蹤我的鍛鍊、心率和睡眠模式。作爲員工健康計劃的一部分，很多企業給員工派發了這類設備，我當時也想一試。

In the course of that week, I think I figured out the answer to the question of how best to incentivise employees to exercise more. It is not to bother at all.

在那一週裏，對於如何更好地激勵員工多鍛鍊這個問題，我認爲我找到了答案，那就是順其自然，根本別費事。

Admittedly, it is hard to argue with the wellness industry’s sales pitch that a healthier workforce is more productive and cheaper (if you are on the hook for employee healthcare costs, that is). The question is how you go about it.

健康行業的推銷詞是更健康的員工更有工作效率，成本更低（如果你要承擔員工健康成本，那麼的確如此），這一點的確無可爭辯。問題是怎麼做。

Wellness programmes that encourage employees to exercise more, eat better food and give up smoking are popular but the hard research, such as it is, suggests that these “lifestyle interventions” are the least effective part of any strategy. A seven-year study of PepsiCo’s programme concluded that the company did reap lower healthcare costs but all the savings came from the “disease management” part of the programme: the bit that helped people with existing problems such as diabetes.

鼓勵員工多運動、吃健康食品和戒菸的健康計劃很流行，但詳實的研究，雖然不一定正確，認爲這些“生活方式干預”在任何一種策略中都是效果最差的部分。對百事公司(PepsiCo)健康項目歷時7年的一項研究得出結論，該公司的員工醫療成本的確降低了，但節省的資金全部來自於健康項目中“疾病管理”的部分：即幫助原本就患有糖尿病等疾病的員工的那部分。

There is also the risk of unintended consequences. When I was wearing my gadgets I felt I would be judged not just on what I did at work, but on what I did in my free time too. One night I walked around the block at 11pm because I was worried my “step count” was too low. My flatmate thought I was slightly unhinged.

這種健康計劃還可能造成意想不到的後果。當我佩戴那些設備時，我感到不僅僅是我工作時間的所作所爲，連我在空閒時間的所作所爲都會成爲評判我的標準。我有一天夜裏11點還在街上轉悠，因爲我擔心我的“步數”太少了。我那個室友都覺得我有點精神失常了。

I wasn’t the only one, it turns out. When researchers André Spicer and Carl Cederström investigated the effects of corporate wellness programmes, they found they often ate into employees’ free time and made them anxious.

事實證明，我不是唯一出現這種情況的人。當研究人員安德烈•斯派塞(André Spicer)和卡爾•塞德斯特倫(Carl Cederström)調查企業健康項目的效果時，他們發現這些項目往往擠佔了僱員的空閒時間，讓他們感到焦慮。

Stress and anxiety are the health risks you can miss if you are too focused on issues like fitness. A friend of mine used to work at a big management consultancy where he did long hours under a lot of pressure.

如果你太專注於健身這樣的事情，壓力和焦慮可能會成爲你注意不到的健康風險。我的一個朋友過去在一家大型管理諮詢機構工作，在那裏他需要在巨大的壓力下長時間工作。

As a coping strategy, he started going to the gym late at night. He said it was the only time he felt he had any control over his life. He was doing so much exercise he would have won a gold star in most wellness programmes but in fact he was burning out.

作爲一項應對策略，他開始深夜到健身房鍛鍊。他說，當時那是他唯一感到他能掌控自己生活的時間。他的鍛鍊量非常大，按說能夠在大多數健康項目中贏得嘉獎，但事實上，他把自己弄得精疲力盡。

This is what irks me about initiatives that simply urge employees to run more and eat better. Such wellness programmes are based on the idea that your health affects your work but ignore the fact the reverse can also be true.

這就是僅僅督促員工多跑步、改善飲食的健康計劃讓我惱怒的地方。這種健康項目基於一個想法——你的健康狀況會影響你的工作，卻忽略了反過來可能也是對的。

The evidence that work can be bad for your health is abundant. Studies show links between shift work and heart attacks, between poorly designed chairs and back pain and between workplace bullying and anxiety.

工作可能有害你的健康的證據很充分。多項研究表明輪班制和心臟病、設計不好的椅子和背痛、工作場所霸凌和焦慮之間存在聯繫。

Surely this should be a rich seam for the wellness industry. Tools that help you figure out when you the employer are the problem would be much more useful, since fixing these matters is directly within your power.

當然，這對健康行業來說應該是個寶庫。有些工具能夠幫助你弄清楚在哪些情況下作爲僱主的你纔是問題所在，這樣的工具應該有用得多，因爲解決這類事情正好在你的能力範圍以內。

I met a start-up recently called Soma Analytics that aims to provide employers with a diagnostic tool just like this. Its product is an app for employees’ smartphones which, it is claimed, picks up on subtle shifts in their stress levels — changes in tone of voice, for example, or quality of sleep. The employer does not receive individualised data but it can see when a whole team, division or demographic appears to be stressed out.

最近我接觸了一家叫做Soma Analytics的初創公司，該公司就爲僱主提供這樣的診斷工具。該公司的產品是一款安裝在員工智能手機上的應用，據其宣稱，該應用能夠監測員工壓力水平的細微變化——比如語調變化，或者睡眠質量。僱主不會接收到個人數據，而是會在一個團隊、部門或者某一類人壓力過大時發現情況。

Johann Huber, one of Soma’s founders, hopes this will prompt companies to figure out when they are working particular teams too hard, so they can address the problem before people start going off sick or quitting.

Soma Analytics創始人之一約翰•胡貝爾(Johann Huber)希望，這能夠促使企業發現它們什麼時候讓某些團隊工作過量了，從而在員工生病或者辭職之前解決這個問題。

Technology like this will have its critics but at least it is aimed in the right direction. Companies should stop urging employees to be “well” and focus on not making them sick.

有人會批評這樣的技術，但至少這類技術的目的在方向上是正確的。企業應該停止敦促員工保持“健康”，把關注點放在別害他們生病。