Health Monitoring of Staff at The Way

One of the daily tasks that Way vice-president Rosalie Fox Rivenbark makes time for is that of monitoring the health and fitness reports of all the staff and children at The Way International headquarters.

These reports are sent to her daily from the various Trustee Cabinet members who in turn get their reports from the many departments.

Head of Household

Health reports are complied by "head of household", that is, the man in the family, and on a daily basis the reports are funneled all the way back up the Way tree to the office of vice-president Rivenbark.

If a "head of household" staff member has a child or spouse who is sick, he MUST report that fact to his department coordinator. There is no provision for not reporting the illness. It is a requirement, that ALL illness be reported to the department coordinator, whether that illness is a sore throat or a child bumping their head.

At that point, the department coordinator will sit with the head of household and discuss the plan of action for attacking the problem - they will also attempt to determine the cause (Martindale frequently states that nothing happens by accident) - discussing where the individuals involved could have done better by being more prepared - and so on.

The department coordinator will then fill out his daily health report for submission to the trustee cabinet coordinator.

Some Go Way Overboard

Some department coordinators are more aggressive than others in their oversight of this health monitoring. Some simply jot a quick note to their trustee cabinet, while others carry out detailed investigations at the slightest maladies.

Some keep computer records of all sicknesses within their groups going back over years (in databases) so that they can track patterns in people's lives and stay on top of people more effectively.

Rosalie Rivenbark has made clear to the trustee cabinet coordinators that she wants reports to be thorough and detailed. Obviously the name of the person being reported about is always provided.

One cabinet coordinator even went so far as to send a report to Rosalie Rivenbark with details about a staff person who had a loose bowel movement that day!

When a person returns from a doctor visit, they are normally expected to report to their department coordinator, the nature of the visit, the recommendation from the doctor for treatment etc., the department coordinator will usually then supervise a thorough follow up on the medical care.

While it is commendable that a corporation would want to make sure that their employees receive proper medical care, the manner in which The Way goes about this is seen by many staff as being oppressive and controlling.

Invasion of Privacy

Some staff have voiced the concern that having to report every detail of private and personal medical matters is an invasion of their privacy, and a denial of their right to make decisions for themselves and their family.

The Way International's current medical reimbursement policy states that any upcoming medical expense over three hundred MUST first be discussed with the department coordinator (the nature of the treatment and the expense), who in turn must first approve the expense before forwarding the request on to the Personnel Director to get his approval.

This three hundred dollar cap leads to some staff members (even, in one witnessed case - the wife of a trustee cabinet member) asking the doctor for two separate receipts so that no one receipt was three hundred dollars or higher.

In the case of a married woman on staff at TWI headquarters who might find herself with a personal "feminine" related medical procedure that was going to cost three hundred dollars or more to treat, she would have to:

• disclose this situation to her department coordinator (most likely male),
• her husband would have to discuss the information with his department coordinator (also probably a man)
• If approval on the expense is received, the information would then be sent on to the Personnel director for reimbursement (also a man)

As one can imagine, there's not much room for privacy in this setup.

Of course, it is always available to ask to be an exception to any of the Way regulations. Many staff people are however very hesitant to ask for "exception" status and therefore live with this constant feeling of living in a fish bowl.

With this method of approval and oversight, the average staff person at The Way International has little privacy in medical related matters.

In addition to this invasion of privacy, the Way trustees have very stringent controls and restrictions on travel outside of the grounds of The Way International (a separate article will be done on this at a later time).

These travel restrictions mean that for most doctor visits, the staff person must be accompanied by another staff member. Heaven forbid that someone had to visit a sexually transmitted disease clinic!

During one particular lunch time Life and Morality teaching by Craig Martindale, Way president, Martindale angrily confronted one staff member and also the parents of a child (one person broke a finger, another had a knee injury).

Martindale, (who himself, in terms of medical expenses, is one of the costliest staff members of The Way International) was quite angry that The Way had to pay for these injuries in the form of medical expenses.

He demanded that the department coordinators of the people involved were to sit with those people and figure out where they went wrong in their thinking? - where had they blown it?

Martindale did apologize for having to embarrass the people involved in front of about 500 people, but he said it was for the overall good of the Headquarters household - it was for all to learn.

On another occasion (again at a lunch time announcement at TWI HQ about one year ago), the Personnel Director, Brad Thorp was asked by the trustees to inform the staff that they should consider putting off non-emergency dental work until the ministry was in a better position to pay for it.

Brad even went as far as to suggest that if someone had a crack in a tooth - that in itself wasn't enough reason to run off and get it capped. Caps are expensive, he said. What's the worst that's going to happen? the tooth might break.....well, you can get a cap then, if that happens. (The above is an approximation of what Brad said - it's pretty close but I have no notes - just my recollections)

Mandated Exercise Program

As part of plan for a healthy and less expensive staff, All Way staff and Way Corps are REQUIRED to exercise three times per week for at least thirty minutes each time. A staff person would be dismissed for refusing to exercise three times per week - (unless it was pre-approved by a Way trustee)

The type of exercise done is left up to individual preference. Running, walking, weights etc., are all available.

The fact that good exercise equipment is available to use is appreciated by Way staff, but many feel that the Way trustees have no business mandating that they exercise three times per week. Some feel that their freedom of choice has been eliminated.

A tool used to ensure that each staff person is exercising three times per week is the weekly schedule which is submitted to the department coordinator on the Friday of each week.

Weekly Schedules

All staff MUST complete a weekly schedule. Usually the schedule will begin at 6 AM and cover all waking hours until bedtime. The schedule covers all of the work and personal hours in a day. Seven days a week are to be accounted for in the schedule.

The individual's plans for their "C.P.3" (Corps Principle 3 - physical exercise related) exercise routine must also be described in the weekly schedule.

Craig Martindale, president of The Way has also told staff and Corps that he expects them to compare their weekly "planned" schedule with what actually occurred and have explanations for the differences (we will cover Way scheduling in a later article).

Mandatory Weight Loss For Overweight Staffers - Rosalie Rivenbark Monitors Progress

In a further effort to ensure that Way people are healthy and inexpensive to keep, some staff have been instructed to lose weight.

Although this mandatory weight loss program is unknown to most Way staff, it does exist and is monitored by vice-president Rosalie Fox Rivenbark.

These staff have been notified of their involvement in this program by their respective department coordinators, and have been "counseled" on how to drop weight.

Weight loss plans and targets have been set for these people. They have not been asked to participate, they have been instructed to participate.

The weekly weight loss reports (for those on the MANDATED program), are compiled by the department coordinators and then sent up through the trustee cabinet, and from there on up to the desk of vice-president Rosalie Rivenbark.

Those on the Way weight loss program have target weights to achieve each week and in the event that they are "off-target", they are expected to explain, in writing, reasons why those targets have not been achieved.

Explanatory notes (often times filled with apologies) are sent to department coordinators in an effort to explain the failure to meet the weekly weight loss targets, or to explain the fact that the individual gained some weight instead of losing weight.

In one such report, a lady apologized to her department coordinator for gaining a very small amount of weight that week, and blamed it on her own slothfulness and lack of discipline to stick to her weight loss plan.

The Fish Bowl

The monitoring of health related issues at The Way International is another example of the micro-management style that the Way trustees have become known for.

With their micro-management and the insistence on knowing very detail about the personal and private activities of their staff, there is very little room left at The Way for a person to make decisions for themselves.

In the words of one staff member, "it's like living in a fish bowl!"