‘From fat and frazzled to fit and happy’: governing the unhealthy employee through quantification and wearable technologies

ABSTRACT

Fitbits are one of an increasing number of wearable devices that are being used in workplace wellness programmes to track steps taken, stairs climbed, distance walked, calories burned, hours slept, and more. In this paper I examine Fitbit Health Solutions (FHS), a subset of the larger Fitbit, Inc., that is devoted to uses of Fitbit devices in workplace wellness programs. Using digital methods to collect documents pertaining to workplace wellness and FHS, as well as interviews with experts who have worked in a professional capacity to bring Fitbits into the workplace, the goal of this paper is to reflect on the increasing ubiquity of quantification and surveillance in employee health initiatives. Drawing on the Foucauldian tool of governmentality analysis, I excavate how these forms of ‘government at a distance’ construct employees as unfit and how quantification is mobilised to characterise and address that problem. First, I discuss the creation of identity categories of fit and unfit employees. Second, I describe how quantification provides a path to fitness for those needing improvement. Third, I explore how quantification and other means of measurement are used in the evaluation of programs and in selling the ‘story’ that Fitbits are a solid return on investment. Finally, I consider the ethical implications of these quantification initiatives, and consider the future of these technologies in workplaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Quantified Self
• physical activity promotion
• surveillance
• digital methods
• workplace wellness

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Drs. Shannon Jette, David L. Andrews, Cheryl Cooky, Adam Beissel, and Jason Farman for their comments on the chapter of her dissertation on which this manuscript is based. She is also grateful to the interviewees who shared their invaluable time and insights with her.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. West Virginia teachers went on strike in 2018 to protest low salaries and high health insurance costs. The strike lasted nine days, resulting in a 5% salary increase and a freeze on increasing health insurance premiums (Campbell 2019).

2. https://healthsolutions.fitbit.com/

3. With the exception of the state Michigan, where discrimination based on weight is illegal.

4. More than 20 workplace wellness experts had appeared in the documents to provide testimonials, but the decision was made to invite 20 since this would likely yield a sample of 4–5 experts, which was the goal for participant recruitment. The goal of the interviews was to contextualise and clarify the documents, and the four participants achieved this goal so no more were sought out.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Flagship Fellowship Program of the University of Maryland Graduate School, the Ann. G Wylie Dissertation Fellowship of the University of Maryland Graduate School, and a doctoral award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Notes on contributors

Katelyn Esmonde

Katelyn Esmonde is a Hecht-Levi Postdoctoral Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore, Maryland. Her research focuses on physical activity ethics, digital technologies, feminism, science and technology studies, and qualitative methods. Her research has focused on the Quantified Self movement across physical culture, and novel digital technologies in pandemic response.