As a manager, you can't discriminate against your employees for gender, race, creed, sexuality, or anything of the sort.
But one form of discrimination I absolutely believe in is discrimination based on health.
When I speak to new hires at Steiner Sports, I tell them: "I don't care about a lot of the things other managers do, but one thing you cannot do here is eat unhealthily."
Because while there is no logical argument that qualities like race and sexuality affect an employees' performance, it is absolutely true that their health does correlate with their performance.
If you don't feel your best, you can't do your best work.
You can't outwork bad nutrition. End of story.
But as Robert De Niro tells Al Pacino in Heat, there's a flip side to that coin.
As a manager, I can't just order my employees to be healthy. I have to help them be healthy. That's an inherent part of my contract with them.
That's why at Steiner Sports, we'll do things like pay for an employee's gym membership. It's why we always have fresh fruit available in the break room. It's why I've been known to do an employee or two the favor of throwing out their lunch for them, and why I like to make a lot of side bets with individuals on which of us can lose weight the fastest (hey, I need to work on my health, just like anyone).
What does your company do to facilitate employee health and well-being?
How can it improve?
