Feds--Employee Wellness Programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My agency has a three-hour-per-week wellness program. Surprisingly, many employees, mostly the younger ones, use it.

OP here-would you mind sharing which agency?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a fitness program. Allowed/encouraged to work out 3 hours per week during work day.

We have this too! It’s the best. I actually use it and it really does improve my mental and physical health

OP here- which agency? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mid day flex and wellness hours, yes

Which agency? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our eap was a joke. If you call them they are located somewhere remote and are looking up suggestions on the internet for you. It’s a waste of agency money for sure. Wish they would just offer us free gym memberships or spa certificates

This. I tried using them for something and no provider was taking anyone. It was a farce.

They referred me to an old white dude therapist who said really judgy stuff about my dating life.

[Anonymous]

My agency doesn't do anything wellness related. I had to attend a mandatory 5 min meeting on suicide prevention recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a fitness program. Allowed/encouraged to work out 3 hours per week during work day.

We have this too! It’s the best. I actually use it and it really does improve my mental and physical health

I had this at my prior agency. Really liked it.

[Anonymous]

My agency has this too, three hours a week. It’s awesome. DoD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a fitness program. Allowed/encouraged to work out 3 hours per week during work day.

We have this too! It’s the best. I actually use it and it really does improve my mental and physical health

OP here- which agency? Thanks!

CHRA (Army)

[Anonymous]

NOAA gives us 40 hours of wellness leave. You're generally only supposed to use an hour per pay period but it's nice if you want to take a walk or something. I don't think people are using it very much, though. It doesn't accrue, it's a type of admin leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What I actually need is for my agency to make sure that FTEs are correct. Congress has mandated too much work for us without providing extra funding. It burns everyone out. If we had more people to do the work it would help everyone's mental health.

Agree with this. If there was any encouragement in my agency to care about our mental health, there would be no time in the day to take advantage of it so no one would.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure why anyone would use those? I just don't think it's my agency's job to fix my mental and physical health. We are all paid more than enough to be able to afford a gym membership if they want one (my coworkers are more into hiking and biking). We do have wellness programs at my agency and no one uses them.

What I actually need is for my agency to make sure that FTEs are correct. Congress has mandated too much work for us without providing extra funding. It burns everyone out. If we had more people to do the work it would help everyone's mental health.

You're not sure why anyone would use a benefit they're entitled to receive and is a negotiated part of their compensation?

Do you think this about other benefits too? "I just don't think it's my agency's job to prepare me for retirement. We are all paid more than enough to fully fund our own TSPs if we want to."

[Anonymous]

we sometimes get admin leave before holiday weekends or after a good performance eval. And there's a pretty nice gym in our building. The best things for my wellness are a generous telework policy, a maxiflex schedule, and supervisors who don't expect work on evenings or weekends unless that's when people choose to work. I don't personally want more than that.

[Anonymous]

Pre-pandemic, we had an on site fitness center with live, free courses. They were great and I took them daily. I was 40 lbs lighter. I was also part of our walking club and took my 30 minute lunch to go walking on the Mall with other people. We were divided into teams based on schedules and had step challenges, etc. I loved the Les Mills fitness classes. We have an onsite clinic where you can get shots, well visits, flu vax, Covid boosters, etc. We had an onsite nutritionist and therapist, but now they are all telehealth.

We still have a gym. Do not get credit hours or time for working during the day. The gym live streams similar to Peloton so I don't really use it, but try to. Our clinic no longer administers vax or shots but the nurse is there. Totally miss the onsite nutritionist, fitness instructors, personal trainers (for $) and live fitness courses. Wish they would return as a huge cost savings.

We only get $25 for biking to our DC office. So DH and I get $50 versus we'd get much more for Metro transit subsidy.

We get free 8 sessions of EAP therapy but the suggestions that take insurance suck (I'm an LCSW).

We now have a "Wellness team" who does meditation, mindfulness, panels on the sandwich generation, different courses on various subjects, in person activities like Taylor Swift bracelet making, chair yoga and small gift bags of wellness products and candy. I would rather have the fitness courses and more fitness focused things we had pre-pandemic. We are an agency of social workers so we don't really need other social workers telling us about the benefits of art therapy or a mindfulness moment I can do on my Headspace or Peloton app. Also don't care about the snacks they give us. Would rather have our cafeteria fully open with healthy food rather than the grill.