You might have heard people giving incentives and bonuses to employees either to boost productivity or when they have achieved a huge target. But this company is giving bonuses to their employees who stick to a healthy lifestyle and bring their BMI (body mass index) below 25 as part of their fun health program.
Don’t be surprised. The founder & CEO at ‘Zerodha’, Nithin Kamath, actually made this announcement on social media on World Health Day.
Taking to LinkedIn, he wrote that anyone on their team with BMI less than 25 gets half a month’s salary as a bonus. He also added that if the team is able to bring down their average BMI from 25.3 to under 24 then everyone gets another half month’s salary as a bonus.
Kamath also acknowledged the fact that even though BMI isn’t the best measure to track health and fitness, it is the easiest way to get started.
Giving more in-depth insight into their health program, he tweeted that the idea has been to nudge everyone to move. Last year also they ran a health program for the team during lockdowns.
Last year we let everyone on the team set health goals & ran a lottery amongst those who met their goals for Rs 10lks. Was successful, but the participation wasn't broad-based.
We ran online yoga sessions & made mental health counselors available for the team during lockdowns 2/5— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) April 8, 2022
And since the health levels have dipped in the past 2 years due to work from home and the pandemic stress, they have decided to push employees to adopt a healthier lifestyle and a bonus was the best way to get them started.
The plan has been to get everyone to a diagnostic center once a year to track health, but has been a challenge given WFH & most on our team aren’t in Metros. Instead of procrastinating, we thought a good way is to get started with something. 4/5
— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) April 8, 2022
He also announced that everyone who reaches the goal would also be eligible for a lucky draw for Rs 10 lakhs.
And this is just an added bonus over and above all other bonuses & incentives that everyone on the team earns. Just like that Rs 10lk prize pool for the lottery we ran last year to pick one person amongst everyone who met their health goals. 5/5
— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) April 8, 2022
While he might have good intentions behind the initiative, people online had mixed thoughts about it. Some thought it might promote fatphobia and trigger people’s eating disorders.
Who is this fun for? And who gets to access all that data on your employees’ health? Such a bad idea. https://t.co/E4ou7nPbB2
— rinachandran (@rinachandran) April 9, 2022
So much wrong with this, as so many people have pointed out. But I just want to highlight that along with everything else, this policy is blatant, overt discrimination against people with a wide range of disabilities. https://t.co/TApwGah9Uz
— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) April 9, 2022
This isn’t a joke. I thought it had to be a joke. Pls don’t do this to your staff. https://t.co/xoBkoxgTSe
— Stephanie deGiorgio (@DrSdeG) April 9, 2022
Congrats, you managed to be fatphobic, ableist, racist, and sexist all at once https://t.co/Jb13bX1UGa
— Shantini (@shantinix) April 9, 2022
Alexa, show me a terrible workplace ‘health’ scheme.
Not a ‘fun health programme’ but a potentially disastrous scheme for employees who might have eating disorders.
There are plenty of ways companies can create healthy workplaces, this isn’t one. 🤦🏻♂️ #eatingdisorders @beatED https://t.co/xsioH00KPQ
— Ryan Sutton (@Ryansutton86) April 9, 2022
One way to show you don't care about employee mental health, weight discrimination, and the actual science around weight loss, and openly encourage behaviors that cause a lifetime of #eatingdisorders … A company to avoid https://t.co/KExBEG8J5z
— Cate Lawrence 🇦🇺🇩🇪 💻😷🐈 (@Cate_Lawrence) April 9, 2022
BMI is pretty useless in capturing a person's state of health. What do you say to non white, healthy, muscular short people? But same body build + taller is good @Nithin0dha you're paying people for eating disorders and public shaming. Leave public health & fun to those who know https://t.co/Gee1BfOvWL
— -|kg Katori (@katoriglad) April 9, 2022
A “health” program similar to this at one of my mom’s old places of employment was one of the catalysts to my eating disorder. That eating disorder almost killed me multiple times and gave me lifelong consequences. This is dangerous for employees and their families. https://t.co/OW1jSTrie0
— Kate is Tired (@Katelynjontel) April 9, 2022
bmi isn't an indicator of good health 😭😭😭😭😭 https://t.co/QH3jRydlKb
— 🍜 (@dontalkwmepls) April 9, 2022
And at the worst, can even lead to eating disorders or mental health issues.
I'm a corporate wellness coach working extensively on health at every size. I could help with better goal setting to be more inclusive and less problematic goals.
— Apoorva 🐘 (@apooorva) April 7, 2022
Ah yes, let's use a measure of "healthy weight" that would classify someone as "obese" for being muscular.
The real prize though, is the employer-sponsored eating disorders the team will develop along the way. https://t.co/S1yEArjx6r
— Debbie Mia (@TheDebbieMia) April 9, 2022
This is serious discrimination and body shaming. There is nothing ‘fun’ about your program. Why should my pay or a bonus be linked to my body type? The only thing relevant is my work.
— Divyaroop Bhatnagar (@debubhatnagar) April 8, 2022
This is genuinely one of the worst things I have ever seen. It is absolutely none of your business what somebody does or doesn’t weigh, you have no idea if anybody involved has an eating disorder or what their relationship with food is. This is downright dangerous.
— Cara Lisette (@CaraLisette) April 8, 2022
BMI is a worthless measure of health. This is just an anti-fat initiative. Absolutely terrible. It would take a few casual Google searches to understand how harmful BMI is. It’s 2022 ffs.
— Ritika Grover (@groveritika) April 7, 2022
Really sorry to say this, but this is a terrible execution of a good intention.
Please reconsider this instead of giving much anxiety to anyone who might have an eating disorder, is uncomfortable about their bodies or 100 other issues you might not know about.
— Jaseem Abid 🌻🌻 (@jaseemabid) April 7, 2022
This is such a brilliant initiative by a company… Yes it could have been framed better , but hey can you focus on the good intention pls..
I wish more such companies take this initiative of helping their employees get healthy and fit … https://t.co/T7b68RoK1t— Nabiya (@nabiya06) April 9, 2022
Great initiative to promote healthy lifestyle! @Nithin0dha
People mainly from West are taking it out of context & spewing hate against Nithin & pushing unhealthy Western propaganda such as fat acceptance. It shows everything wrong with West when it comes to health. https://t.co/xBdIdeYn7i
— मिहिर पुरोहित (@MihirPurohit08) April 9, 2022
What do you think of this idea to encourage people to be ‘healthy’?