Even when faces with a question about why not make the new county wellness program mandatory, Toni Precwinkle defended keeping it voluntary.

These days that is a big decision to make. I am not sure how it happened (other than some employers will do whatever they can manage to get away with and with a recession on that is quite a lot). Employers have always had the power to create rules for their employees to follow when working. The change lately though is that employers, while still paying for a 40 or so hour work week, have assumed the power to have rules that are to be followed, not only while working, but 24/7.

So, I have to applaud Toni Precwinkle for taking a program that could only succeed if participants followed it both during working hours and also non-working hours and making it voluntary. I just wish other employers would do the same (or pay their employees for the additional couple of hundred hours per week that they are expected to live under the employers regulations).