The Step Count Has Been Promoted to a Corporate Mood Metric
Walking used to be movement. It is increasingly framed as a publicly reportable sign of compliance with the larger project of being manageable.
A step count feels innocent because walking is innocent. That innocence erodes once the metric enters benefit portals, team challenges, and the soft pressure of proving you are taking care of yourself in a form legible to a spreadsheet.
Institutions prefer steps because steps are neat. They offer the appearance of support without requiring the messier work of fixing schedules, workloads, or food environments that would make ordinary health easier.
People may keep the watch and still resent the larger arrangement. The number follows them around like a polite supervisor of one of the few human activities that should have remained gloriously unmonetized.
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