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Lifestyle Discrimination in the Workplace
March 24, 2008
Most of us have been down the path of the work/life program, which is “work to live/live to work.” In other words, you try not to let your work dominant your life. But with the communications we have today, you never leave the office, it goes with you. In the era of the Blackberry, businesspeople that travel around the world can answer e-mail in minutes and always remain tethered to the office, bringing up questions of what is work time and what is personal time?
Many companies are now debating “Lifestyle Discrimination in the Workplace.” In an effort to control the significant rise in health care costs in recent years, many employers are trying to regulate the off-duty behavior of their employees, when the company believes it creates health risks. It’s part of the broader risk management trend. Just as buyers are concerned with the risk of not being able to get a product, employers are concerned that health problems can prevent people from showing up at work.
Do employers have free reign to monitor and make decisions based on the off-duty conduct of their employees? If companies are in one of the states that offer a “lifestyle statute, they may be prohibited from doing so and, to date, 21 states have passed lifestyle discrimination statutes. The majority of these protect only smokers. Colorado and North Dakota ban discrimination based on any form of legal off-duty behavior. In a state without a lifestyle statute, employers have more freedom to take action based on off-duty conduct.
In the news, you have seen many cases of off-duty behavior. The National Workrights Institute has an interesting website, http://www.workrights.org. This is a non-profit organization that believes all workers are entitled to their rights in the workplace. This is a member supported organization. (Note: This is not intended as a message of support for this group, it is merely intended as a website for information.) How many of us are familiar with the lifestyle statute and how many of us know where our state stands on this? As employees or employers we need to know what is taking place in our world.
Posted by Mary Walker on March 24, 2008 | Comments (0)