GOT WELLNESS PRIVILEGE? HERE'S WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW

​Have you ever watched one of those reality shows where contestants battle it out for immunity? Immunity is granted to those who are the first to reach the rest stop, have the highest design score, or whose meal is deemed the judges' favorite. They’re the best, right?

Maybe not.

The winners are not necessarily the best, the fastest, or the most talented. In many cases, the winners have an inside track on how to play the game, circumvent the rules, or bypass the challenges. They hold unearned advantages. 

Immunity is like privilege; it is granted only to those invited to play, understand the rules, or are equipped to override challenges. Those with privilege have a leg up – and often times don’t even know it.

So, let’s bring this to you. Do you have privilege? Are there advantages that you hold that have given you a leg up, paving the way to success? 

Privilege, or the “p-word,” has gotten a lot of play lately - especially as it shapes the extent to which an individual can – or can’t – achieve the American Dream. Scholars like Harvard economist Raj Chetty have challenged the notion that meritocracy prevails, and with effort, any individual can achieve the American Dream. 

Instead, his research (and that of many others) have uncovered systems that make access to the American Dream difficult, or in some cases, impossible. Where we live, the family we’re born into, the school we went to, our gender, our race, our sexual orientation, and many other factors play a role in the extent to which we are likely to achieve our version of the American Dream. Hard data gathered by Chetty’s research team, in the form of “opportunity maps,” shows that for many, the American Dream is nothing more than that – a dream, aka, a “myth.” 

So, let’s bring all of this to wellness. Just as the American Dream is a myth, is the same true when it comes to the pursuit of better health and well-being? 

Evidence suggests yes. 

How many times have you heard messages like “You just need more grit! Lean in! Or, girl, wash your face!” To a fault, the overriding narrative in wellness has been centered around individual actions. Build a positive mindset. Get more resilient. Set SMART goals. Form tiny habits. Find the right digital device. Take mini-breaks. Eat whole foods. Do the work that you love. Follow your passion. Be your full authentic self. Get out into nature.

Each of these tips, while usually well intended, invoke a whole host of assumptions. The extent to which we can put each tip into action is dependent upon Wellness Privilege. 
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​The truth is, better health and well-being is more is than just a matter of taking individual responsibility. In fact, research suggests that only 20% of our health is due to our personal choices. The remaining is due to Social Determinants of Health, or the conditions within which we live, learn, work and play. 

This growing body of research shows how habits are never formed or carried out in a vacuum. Rather, they are formed within the context of circles of cultural and environmental influence – or ecosystems. Moreover, there are systems at work within each of these circles that need to be addressed. This is where privilege, or more specifically, Wellness Privilege needs to enter the conversation.

So, let’s explore a few of these. As you read each prompt, take a moment to consider your response. Is it a “yes” or a “no”? Spoiler alert: Each “yes” is a Wellness Privilege.

• I can take breaks to engage with well-being activities during the workday. (yes or no) 
  One of the biggest assumptions made when it comes to the pursuit of wellness is an individual’s capacity to allocate their own time at work. The extent to which employees feel empowered to actually take well-being breaks is often dependent upon the level of Wellness Privilege they are afforded.
• I can show up as who I really am. I don't have to "code switch" to hide some aspect of my identity. (yes or no) In working closely with a range of organizations, I often see white, straight men who are given wide berth to be their full authentic selves - especially for those in executive positions. That definitely does not hold for others. Rather, too often organizations diversify themselves in terms of demographics (especially on lower levels), but with an expectation that this diverse workforce conforms to a norm. 
• I get equal air time in conversations and meetings; I feel valued and am rarely interrupted or ignored. (yes or no) Getting interrupted, being talked over, and being ignored happens a lot to women, people of color and marginalized workers in the workplace. For example, according to a George Washington Univ. study, men interrupt women 33% more often than when they’re speaking to other men. For women of color, it is worse.
• I can afford my medical insurance premiums, co-pays and any deductibles. (yes or no) 
  With few exceptions, high-wage and low-wage workers are paying the same premiums, deductibles and co-pays – despite vast differences in amounts paid. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey, only 7% of employers with 50 or more workers reduced cost-sharing for their lower wage workers. Is that fair?
• I have opportunities to grow my career. (yes or no) Companies like Google famously offer their employees 20% of their work time to pursue personal passion projects. A lot of organizations have followed suit. An important distinction here: this perk is most often provided to a specific, privileged group within the organization. Case in point: I worked with a medical department. The chief of the department proudly spoke about an internal initiative in which physicians were given time to work on passion projects. Meanwhile, the others in the department, i.e., the medical assistants, reporters and physical therapists, were not.
• I feel safe walking in my neighborhood. (yes or no) Certainly, safety is something that many of us take for granted. Closely tied with this privilege is access to green spaces. Over 100 million Americans don’t have a park within a ten-minute walk of their home, according to the Trust for Public Land. Do you? 

These are just six examples of Wellness Privilege, derived from a longer list I co-created with DEI expert Karen Catlin. Together, we crafted a checklist, or 50 Ways You Might Have Wellness Privilege at Work, an assessment tool that lists 50 ways an employee, manager, or leader might have—or might not have—privilege at work that supports their well-being.

These seemingly trivial examples speak to a much deeper landscape of inequities. Consider, for example, that only about 5% of physicians in the US are African American. Or consider that 19 million Americans live in a food desert, which is disproportionately the case in black and brown communities. Or consider that nearly 70% of African Americans live in areas deprived of nature and green spaces, according to National Geographic.

Wellness continues to be achievable only by those who are already “well," imbued with huge advantages. "Why Your Yoga Class Is So White," as characterized in an earlier Atlantic article, is still alive and well. While change is happening, there is still an enormous lack of representation in the health and wellness space. When people are unable to see themselves or feel represented in a space, they struggle to identify with it and embrace it. 

Providing access to the things that enable health and wellness to flourish, such as affordable healthcare, healthy foods, safe spaces to exercise, and free time to focus on self-care, are keys to ensuring wellness for all people. Unfortunately, the lack of these resources in certain communities and groups widens the Wellness Privilege gap. 

The pandemic has only widened the Wellness Privilege gap, especially among communities of color. “Approximately 97.9 out of every 100,000 African Americans have died from COVID-19, a mortality rate that is a third higher than that for Latinos, and more than double than that for whites and Asians.” This overrepresentation of African Americans among COVID infections and deaths is a very real example of Wellness Privilege and the deadly consequences of not addressing it. 
 
The reality is that Wellness Privilege is real, it’s deep, and for those who are lucky enough to possess it, it’s invisible. Here are three ways that we can begin to dismantle it:

1. We can recognize that personal responsibility is not enough, and that in fact, the continued personal responsibility messaging only serves to magnify Wellness Privilege.
2. We can examine ways in which some of us are afforded more Wellness Privilege than others. In other words, we can start to make the invisible, visible. That’s exactly the intent of our checklist.
3. We can take action, both individually and collectively. Especially for those who do hold Wellness Privilege, we can step forward as allies. Collectively, we can take action by issuing company-wide policies and making organizational shifts that get at root causes.

As a profession, in order to create a more just and equitable country, we need to make workplace wellness work for everyone, regardless of race, age, abilities, income level, geographical location. Wellness shouldn't be a privilege but a right for everyone. 
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Let’s work together to change wellness from a privilege for the few to a right accessible to all. 
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Join my LinkedIn live conversation with
Sacha Thompson about Wellness Privilege.
REGISTER HERE >
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laura putnam

Laura Putnam is a leading catalyst for well-being at work, an international public speaker, and author of Workplace Wellness That Works. As CEO of Motion Infusion and creator of the leadership training program Managers on the Move, she infuses well-being into the workplace to help employees, teams and organizations thrive. You can follow her on Twitter @MotionInfusion.