What you reveal at work : personal details for your profile on health and fitness

[shootingstar]

April in health and wellness month at our workplace. (Bike to Work Day is 2nd wk. in May for our city.)
For 1 wk., I will be profiled as one of the employees for my health and fitness, etc. Info. and photo (I don't know which one they will choose) of me will appear on the corporate intranet's front page and could be viewed by over 8,000 employees.

The original profile style will switch to a question and answer article. I will see the questions early this week. I already light-heartedly told the communications person that some questions I may not answer/well because it may be convoluted/too long. I'm beginning to wonder about this....I don't always eat lunch, I haven't joined any social clubs/organizations.

The schtick about me is that might distinguish my health/fitness habits from some other employees, is that I have lived and cycled in 3 major Canadian cities in 3 different provinces of our country. I know what it means to live in a walkable, cycleable neighbourhood because I've made the choice for all these cities. Also for me to be car-free for last 30 yrs., especially in Calgary/prairie city, is quite unusual --judging from the shocked responses from long-time locals.

What would you reveal about yourself if you were profiled by your employer for health and wellness?


NB: Other employees they've showcased: a police officer who jogs regularily and volunteers for past few years for Special Olympics (mentally disabled); a long-time arbourist who loves fishing; an HR supervisor who's trying to lose a lot of weight, etc.

[Crankin]

I'm not sure what you're asking.
There's nothing in my exercise or eating routines that I would withhold, as I don't feel that's so personal that I would want to keep it secret. Isn't that the point of the profile? My colleagues ask me all of the time how I "do what I do?" My response is, "It's a priority in my life, my social life revolves around outdoor activity, and I get up very early to have the time for some of it." Most of the responses I get are "I can't do that." I always give the same answer and say, "You don't have to, do what fits your lifestyle or you won't continue." I just had this conversation with a colleague who is about 30 years younger than me.
Share what you want, I guess is my answer.

[Trek420]

I'm a tiny, insignificant cog in a major company; somewhere around 250-300,000 employees. There is major presence on the internal website about wellness, healthier life choices. I've always been outdoorsie though have struggled with weight. In the last year I went from a size 20 sumthin' to a size 10, not sure about the weight I lost but I feel great being smaller.

It's tempting to share that online internally and talk about what worked for me; better nutrition/hydrating, moving where I could ride or walk for errands more easily and yep, quitting my job! Obviously I'm back at work now. If people want to know what I found works I'm happy to share but don't want to be the "cover girl" for weight loss.

[shootingstar]

Congrats. Trek for weight loss!
I agree Trek, a personal profile is just....content on a corporate intranet site...which will disappear soon or just be archived for the next few months.

You belong to a huge firm! I did belong to such a firm but I think it was over 175,000...a global firm with operations worldwide. (Canada only had 5,000 employees across the country.)
The employer who I work for now has 14,000 but not all of them are given work computers for their jobs, because some have jobs that don't require a work computer.

Yup, I agree I share if people want to hear it/ read it. I know when we have daily, informal intranet poll (on main intranet pg.), at most 600-800+ employees respond..which gives a sense of what people read and how they respond to stuff on our intranet. Yes, there have been informal questions asked about employee's preferred means of transportation to work, how they might spend a holiday, if they use twitter, FB, etc. at home. Our employees do genuinely cross a wide cross-section of income classes --from part-time lifeguards to executive managers who all live across the city.

The definition of wellness by the employer, is wholisitic --it also includes social relationships and mental health. If there are questions that touch in this area, I think I'll just have to answer vaguely...because life has been complicated for me in the past few years. But true, cycling, art and blogging have been activities that have helped me, for physical as well as psychological health as well as access to Internet to friends and family across Canada.

I am a relatively "new" face to this region of Canada. The difficult changes that have occurred in our city to become "better" in liveability have made our city a latecomer, compared to many other major cities. And the push tends to come from people who have lived in other cities or other countries. Long time Calgarians, who have never lived elsewhere, have found the rapid, physical changes to their city, hard to adjust.

One continues to amaze me is the chasm due to lack of knowledge between British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. Despite all the internet information on cycling infrastructure work, advocacy, programs and general urban design trends, lots of people in Vancouver and Calgary, are clueless of what Toronto has achieved over 15 years ago. Conversely I totally wince about people in Vancouver and Toronto wanting a surface level extension for light rail transit: forget THAT. Calgary's LRT gets slowed down by car traffic lights, etc. Just some examples where actually living and experiencing certain things in each city, makes a huge difference to make feasible/realistic comparisons over just reading about something in theory.

I'm tempted to provide a link to this blog post that I wrote many months ago that truly does encapsulate what anyone may want to consider in the area of exercise, health. But that's providing a link to my personal blog...which well. Hmmm, I got to think about that.

If any of you were in my shoes, would you provide that link to a personal blog post?

[malkin]

I would keep all responses short. Make sure to be simple and direct. Use correct grammar and standard word usage. Answer the question and then stop writing.
When in doubt, leave it out.

[TrekDianna]

I don't share anything personal at work.

[shootingstar]

I know what you mean TrekDianna since I've worked for....8 different employers during the course of my career so far. For most organizations, I didn't do business lunches with people much at all. It's just introspective me. I've lost touch with all the people I've had remote acquaintance from previous employers. But because I've been cycle commuting to work for a long time, several of those employers did know and saw I cycled to work. So yea, discussions revolved around health in general, travel, safe stuff.

This latest employer, I know of only 1 person personally outside of work, and she works for a totally different division. I do socialize just with 1 person occasionally because I am new to the city and know no one. No one before I moved from Vancouver. It wouldn't be a big deal if I was in my 20's, fresh out of university and moving to city where one knew no one. That happened when I moved to Toronto.

But life is quite different when you relocate in your 50's.

If it weren't for my partner who did live in this city in his last final years of his career, I would have been cluelessly slow in understanding the pulse of this city and various neighbourhoods just to feel comfortable.

I walk into the workplace with my cycling gear on and leave with cycling on. So no secret about this facet of me. True, there are colleagues who really don't understand my cycling lifestyle. But I don't care.

Yea, malkin maybe I yak too much.

[Trek420]

I would keep all responses short. Make sure to be simple and direct. Use correct grammar and standard word usage. Answer the question and then stop writing. When in doubt, leave it out.

What she said. There are people I've met at work who I count as my closest personal friends. These are folks I met on previous jobs and have known for years. Some new coworkers know I ride. They don't know of the weight loss because they've always seen me thus. As far as they know it's my norm and I'm fine leaving it that way.

Although it was a hoot when my ex who also works for blahblahblah.corp pinged me on the intra company messaging gizmo thingie I did politely, diplomatically, tactfully say "Yes, I'm back at blahblahblah.corp now and living up here with my wife. I simply adore it here, living right on a multi-use trail. So convenient and pretty. I'm down to a size 10 now! " And if she's lurking on TE; Brrrrphhhht which I could not say on the intra company messaging gizmo thingie.

Anywho ... I'm aware many coworkers struggle with weight. Others want to fit activity in their lifestyle and don't know how to do it. I'm reluctant to be the poster child of "Oh just do this. Size 20 to a 10 (ok, in the vanity sizes but still it counts ). I did it, here's what worked".

If asked I'm happy to share what I found works. I have even referred some to the wise women and few men-folk of TE.

At the same time I'm aware of subtle and not-so subtle envy, or resentment. For example some might think it's odd we can afford so many bikes without being aware I don't have much. I'm just a poor gal with great bikes. Others struggle with responsibilities such as being in the "sandwich generation" to fit activity in. It's not for me to say "Oh, just live on a MUT". And so on.

So congratulations on the recognition of your cycling. Use the force wisely

[shootingstar]

So congratulations on the recognition of your cycling. Use the force wisely

Star Trek advice is good, Trek. I never thought about possibly causing hidden resentment/envy for anyone to be profiled. Simply because I don't view myself as a woman that others notice at all.

It is SO easy to judge a person by the exterior and not know the road the person they have walked/are walking/hidden struggles related to life's challenges.

So easy to look at person (like me) and assume it's their good, non-fat genes, that they are lucky. No, I was lucky to have been raised by low-income parents who actively made sure we ate healthy. I chose to adopt some of those healthy food choices...hopefully I'll stick to my choices for life.

So easy to judge a person (like myself) that they live in walkable, cycleable neighbourhood because they have choice/afford it. My response to misperceptions: You have no idea: I was raised in a 1 bedroom apartment that swelled up to 5 children before my poor (literally, we didn't have much money) parents scraped savings to buy their first (ramshackle) 3-bedroom house that had to be close to transit because we couldn't afford a car. This was not in China, this was in southern Ontario. That's why being car-free is not such a huge deal-breaker for me..because I started off in life that way. I do know what it means to live under socio-economic duress and how easy it is, if one is not vigilant, to become unhealthy.

Anyway, I don't plan to rant on in my profile about that.

[shootingstar]

So got the questions. Am trying to find ways of de-emphasizing cycling in my answers. Not everyone wants to read/hear about cycling. So it's mentioning my art stuff, etc.

[indysteel]

So got the questions. Am trying to find ways of de-emphasizing cycling in my answers. Not everyone wants to read/hear about cycling. So it's mentioning my art stuff, etc.

I think you're overthinking this Shootingstar. Answer the questions the way you want to answer them, providing as much or as little personal information as you're comfortable sharing. Don't worry about what you think people do/don't want to read. For all you know, they'd find any and all of your interests to be fascinating. Just be yourself and let the reader react the way they're going to react.

[Crankin]

I agree. People will take what they want from what you say.

[PamNY]

You are definitely overthinking this Shootingstar.

I did employee publications for years for a large corporation. Presumably this is not an in-depth analysis of you or the other employees who have participated. Malkin's advice above is very good.

Your cycling is a fact; you don't need to rationalize or explain it.

Just give simple, cheery answers and don't worry about what people will think.

[indysteel]

I'll share a little story that might help: About a year ago, one of my coworkers, who happens to work in a division of our office several hours to the south of where I work, wrote a piece for our own inter-company newsletter about her chickens. Now, I'm not really interested in chickens, but I read the story anyway. It was so funny and charming that I felt compelled to email her to thank her for sharing it. At the time, I didn't know her other than by name, but her story, and my email in response to her, sparked a friendship. While I never actually see her, we email regularly and share what's going on in our respective lives. She's a very funny, lovely person, and I'm so glad she shared something with me about herself.

I share that because you just never know how, why or over what you might connect with someone. I think being genuine and open goes a long way toward bridging all sorts of gaps with people. Now, you may have no interest in bridging gaps at work--and that's fine--but you never know how sharing your interests with others might impact them.

[thekarens]

Plus One for what Indy said. I haven't connected with or met any of my co-workers that I've read about on our intranet, but I have been inspired by them. There was the lady that was 100lbs overweight who went to the Boston Marathon and decided right then and there she was going to run that race and sure enough the following year she had lost the weight and run that race.

I also agree that you don't need to give an indepth look at your innermost being. Just be yourself and share you passion like you would with anyone else who asked you about it.