I have a friend who works in health care, at a relatively high profile hospital. He emailed me the other day to tell me that he HAD to get a flu shot for work. I was surprised by his emphasis on HAD, so I called him up to verify. As it turns out his high profile employer was mandating that all employees with face-to-face interaction with patients HAD to get a flu shot within a certain period of time or their employment would be terminated.

Is that even legal? I couldn’t believe it.

Then…

I get another email from the same friend. He’s at an all day meeting with his employer. Within the email is a photo of danishes, bagels, and muffins being served for breakfast during the meeting. No fruit to be seen, no protein anywhere, just sugar and flour. Later I get the lunch update, mayo based salads served as sandwiches, chips, and cookies. Not even an apple or a simple vegetable tray.

Seriously?

I think message is twisted. Mandate flu shots but serve crap for meals. This employer, and I’m sure many more, have a lot of evaluating to do.

Let’s at least try a little bit of this the next time you host an employee meeting (which like the flu shot is also mandatory!)