telophase | (no subject)

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The university I work as holds a get-fit initiative every year at this time. It usually takes the form of a walking challenge - those who want to participate form teams, get pedometers, and record the number of steps they take. The winning team gets ... I have no idea what they get.

This year they're (trying to) add something: peer pressure. In the letter that was sent around announcing it, they encouraged everyone to take the stairs instead of the elevator, and to encourage your co-workers to do the same. And to note when a cow-orker* took the stairs and to send their names in and whoever got the most commendations wins ... something or other.

I cannot tell you how much the idea of secretly noting other people's behavior and reporting it to a central authority appalls me. I'm actually deliberately taking the elevator whenever possible in protest.

I don't think that anyone here actually cares enough about it to bother noting such things, but the principle is ... not good.

* Not a typo. It has a long and speshul history on the intartubes.

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Oh sob. I wonder if anyone has pointed this out to them.

I'm considering doing so, but I deleted the email in pique and need to find another copy of it. XD Or at least poke around the school's website and see if I can find a copy.

ETA: Oh, here we go: "Collect names of people you see using the stairs and submit their names to [name] in HR and earn five points." They may possible mean people *on your team* as a previous bullet point asks the team leader to count the number of times team members take the stairs, but it's not clear.

Soooob. Even that's all kinds of ... idek. Are you unlikely to know the names of the people on your "team"?

I cannot tell you how much the idea of secretly noting other people's behavior and reporting it to a central authority appalls me.

Quote Orwell in your response. Buddy system is one thing; thought-police, another.

Ugh, that's super-creepy. Forget taking the elevator in protest--I'd use it as an excuse to never get out of my desk chair. I'll just roll myself down to the stacks, thanks.

I realize that this is meant to be something fun and team-building and not mini-1984, but the fact that no one looked at it and said, "er, hang on a second..." before it went out is worrisome.

I second this! I never have to go out into the stacks but I love rolling around in the rolley chair.

Uh what? See this is exactly the kind of stuff that makes me dig in my heels and do the exact opposite. I would do the same as you and take the elevator*. It is one thing for people to be excited about weightloss and organize on a personal level. It is a little different when HR steps in. If you are going to have prizes for something I think it should be job related and not yay look at me I take the stairs!

*I take the elevator up even one flight of stairs. why? Because I spent way too much time shelving on my knees and they make a horrible click-clack every step I take up one.

Yup. I even agree I should take the stairs more - I take them down but not up most of the time, and my knee is starting to hurt again, which means I should really take the stairs up for strengthening exercise but take the elevator down, because going down stairs is harder and less stable for the knee. XD

But stuff like this just sticks in my craw.

I know. I was actually so mad about something my ex said about weight that I said whatever, I'll do what I want and gained about 30 pounds. Obviously not the SMART thing to do but I have a tendency if I am being pushed and not liking it to do the exact opposite. I knew you used more muscles going down, but I did not know it applied to the knee.

I think it has something to do with the muscles having to work harder to keep the knee stable while your weight is shifting on to it and off it again.

creeepy

Send in an email with an incredibly detailed list of stair taking.

Include date stamps and police procedural language.

Include a note that you'll endeavor to be more perceptive in the future, "mein General"

since I think, Obersfuhrermenchpolitik is just a little too creepy.

...
And they see this as a good way to promote fitness? Peer police? ><

(I take the stairs at my office now and again, and since we're on the 8th floor that's no small feat. Still, if I knew of people keeping tabs on me doing so, I'd be notably less inclined).

My feeling about taking the stairs: The heart is willing but the knees are weak.

...wow, that's creepy.

Lie! Lie a lot! Skew the results!
Claim to have seen the ghost of Abe Lincoln taking the stairs and claim his points for your team!

Wow. Because, you know, nothing builds team spirit like encouraging your staffers to poke their noses into each other's business and report on it to authority figures!

Wow, how much does that creep me out? LOTS.

I already get enough flak for taking the elevator (seriously, people frown on it, even when I used my cane!). Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Yikes! Nobody here has ever said a thing. Except to agree with me when I mumble something about being lazy and taking the elevator. :D

Yeah, it drives me nuts. Needless to say, I am still taking the elevator. :P

I think a lot of people who organize initiatives and so forth just get so immersed and enthusiastic that they simply don't think about the implications of their ideas until someone points out the unintended consequences.

Reminds me of the dorm RA who wanted everyone to get to know each other, and proposed making a chart of all the floors with everyone's name, picture and room numbers mapped onto it. And post it right in the unsecured lobby where everyone could see it. He got all peevish when a female resident (me) strongly objected, on the grounds that this chart could facilitate a hell of a lot more than simple friendliness. Like, practically a rapist's guide to the building. To him this was such a distant possibility that I was just being a cranky spoilsport, even though I could cite at least three incidents of off-campus dorm intruders from the previous year. :P

We used to have the names of the inhabitants posted outside the doors in my dorms. Those of us who didn't like it found very quickly how easy it was to slide the piece of paper with the name out and substitute your own piece of paper. Like, say, something cut out of the newspaper.

That was why I was "Frank Sinatra" for a good portion of my undergrad years. :)

(They stopped that the year after I graduated, started locking the downstairs doors and making them card access, and also stopped the stupid habit of numbering all the phone lines consecutively. Since the dorms were alternating-floor male and female, all someone had to do was phone and if the person answering the phone was female, know what the floor was.)

I visited my alma mater a while ago, and WHOA was the security unrecognizably increased! Keypads and card readers everywhere. The most I recall from my time there was that the lobby door was supposed to be locked after 10 PM, and that they kept having to ask various cretins not to prop it open for the Domino's delivery guy.

What really burned me at the time? A lot of the girls pooh-poohed my objection to the room chart too -- I got almost no support except from some of my male friends! But it never did happen, thank goodness; they put up a blank chart and anyone who wanted to could fill in his or her own name. I think some administrator with an ounce of sense informed the RA that his original idea was a no-go...

"Collect names of people you see using the stairs and submit their names to [name] in HR and earn five points." They may possible mean people *on your team* as a previous bullet point asks the team leader to count the number of times team members take the stairs, but it's not clear.

Being at another nearby university that also does a fitness initiative every long semester (although we don't get points for taking the stairs instead of the elevator, unfortunately), I am betting it is the latter case - just tracking in your own team. Although our teams rely on self-reporting, the team captain is just the one who gathers that all in and submits it since there are team competitions (and we pay $2 to participate so there are prizes).

I'd contact the office in charge and tell them their website is unclear. I think it's more a case of people being unable to write coherent sentences and paragraphs these days.

I'd assume that, except ... if you look at the announcement (http://hr.tcu.edu/wellness.pdf) (PDF), you can see that collecting the names of the people on your team is point #4 and collecting the names of ... who? ... is point #5. Hrm.

Ahh, you're right. Maybe someone is a little too enthusiastic about the program as an earlier commenter said.

Frankly, I'd wonder if someone who has enough time to count OTHER people using the stairs has enough WORK to do!

Ugh. See my prior comments about stairs.

Massively agreed on the creepy. Maybe a required showing of Good Night and Good Luck for administration?

Oh man. That is deeply uncool.

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