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A Wellness Program Under Test

Eighty percent of large American employers offer workplace wellness programs. Zirui Song of Harvard Medical School and Katherine Baicker tested one in a randomized trial at BJ’s Wholesale Club. The program ran at 20 sites, with 140 sites as a control, for 18 months from January 2015.

Employees in the program reported more exercise and more attention to their weight. Measured health, health spending, absences and job performance did not change significantly. The results appeared in JAMA in April 2019.

Self-Preservation

In 1988 the poet Audre Lorde wrote in A Burst of Light, after her second cancer diagnosis: “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

In 2024 the consulting firm McKinsey estimated the American wellness market at $480 billion. Eighty-two percent of American consumers called wellness a top or important priority.

The Happiness Course

In spring 2018 the Yale psychologist Laurie Santos taught a course called Psychology and the Good Life. More than 1,200 students enrolled, about a quarter of Yale’s undergraduates. It became the most popular class in the history of Yale College. Santos said, “I hate seeing them so time constrained that they never have a chance to take a break and explore this interesting place.”

An online version, The Science of Well-Being, had more than five million learners by October 2026. Its description promises challenges to increase your own happiness “and build more productive habits.”

Not at the Same Time

In December 2018, on the tour for her memoir Becoming, Michelle Obama spoke at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. “I tell women that whole ‘you can have it all’ — mmm, nope, not at the same time, that’s a lie.”

Why Women Still Can’t Have It All

In 2012 Anne-Marie Slaughter, the first woman to serve as director of policy planning at the State Department, wrote in The Atlantic about why she left that job. “Juggling high-level government work with the needs of two teenage boys was not possible.”

Her article “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All” became “one of the most-read pieces in the magazine’s history.”

“that make us miserable”

June 16, 2025. Wall Street Journal. “Many of us feel compelled to say yes to things that make us miserable. Yes to work that is not our job. Yes to taking on jobs when we’re at home or on vacation. Yes to boring, unnecessary meetings or company dinners.”

Key Points: saying yes to unwanted tasks leads to unhappiness, while saying no, when done correctly, brings relief; evaluate requests by weighing their cost to you against the benefit to others before responding; base your “no” on personal principles, use empowered language, and reinforce with confident body language.

The author is Vanessa Patrick, associate dean of research and Bauer professor of marketing at the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business. She is the author of “The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No That Puts You in Charge of Your Life.”

Some interesting comments on the article:

“Like so many things, it depends. In my experience, unless the corporate world has changed much more than I think it likely has, saying “no” to your boss is generally not a great career move.”

“Following this advice will result in getting you and your priorities fired! This article is written by an academic who clearly has no idea how large, fast organizations work. It’s incredibly arrogant to assume that one always knows the valid reason to do something that seems out of one’s lane. It assumes you work with the same knowledge/data as your boss. That’s rarely the case. The current environment is so ultra-competitive that missing even a slight competitive edge or event could mean the decisive difference. Do not listen to someone so entranced in academia (with tenure and no competition ) who is advising you to do.”

“I started reading this article, then quickly said, “No”.”

“The author clearly never worked at a consulting firm or any kind of matrix organization where there were many bosses with competing interests. However, she is publishing, and that’s important for academicians.”

“After moving 3 times in 4 years for my employer, he then asked me to move again after one year. Talked to my wife over the weekend and decided the family would stay while I listed conditions for accepting the move including weekend flights back home. On following Monday told the boss I would accept the assignment and handed him my written list of conditions. He said forget about it and asked me who he should give the assignment to. I stayed at the then current location for 6 years and moved to final location before retirement. Oh and got a another promotion along the way. Cannot just say no; must be strategic/political. Always do what is best for the company with caveats.”