Does your office have a gym? Do you have group exercise classes, weigh-ins, nutrition experts, and incentive programs for staying healthy? Wellness programs are a hot topic right now. Naturally, with out-of-control health care and insurance costs, companies are looking for ways to save money and keep their employees healthier.

Now, let me ask you something else. Do you sit at a desk from 8-5? Do you stress out about staying home sick from work, or staying home with a sick child? Do you get nervous thinking about your dwindling or non-existent paid time off? These issues effect not only our wellness, but our productivity at work.

The point we’re making is this: the traditional daily grind at the office doesn’t promote a holistic concept of wellness. Wellness programs are great, but does the company culture undermine those same programs? We have to think of wellness in bigger terms if we want to truly promote the health and productivity of all employees.

Not that I needed another reason to be grateful for many of the workplace benefits my current employer provides but I can’t help but be incredibly thankful that during Connecticut’s “snowtober” as it’s being called, my employer has allowed several of her employees the ability to work from home, be flexible with our work hours and has even said we can bring our children into the office if need be.

If you haven’t heard, Connecticut (and surrounding states), got hit hard by a snow storm right before Halloween. Most of the state has been without power for 7 days now, and our neighborhoods look like a tornado blew through and knocked all the trees (and power lines) down. Considering it’s hovering around 20-30 degrees at night, the fact that we have no heat in our home means I’m camped out at my parents’ house, who fortunately do have power and heat. I’m even more fortunate that I’m allowed to work remotely until power is restored in my area.

Editor’s note: This was originally published at Role/Reboot.

October is annual National Work & Family Month. Who knew? A 2003 U.S. Senate Resolution declared this to be the month of “encouraging workplaces to pause…and reflect on the progress already made on the journey to work-life effectiveness, to celebrate and then raise the bar moving on to even more pervasive progress.”

Though it’s admirable to encourage employers to reflect on the issues of work/life balance and workplace fairness, I’m not popping the cork to toast progress just yet. From a worker’s rather than an employer’s perspective, National Work & Family Month seems like an opportunity to recalibrate where work/life issues are headed.

On the occasion of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15 to October 15, MomsRising is celebrating Latina mothers across the United States, ¡Con Mucho Gusto! (With great pleasure.) With a population of 50 million in the United States (1), Latinos have and will continue to contribute to our country in a myriad ways to our economy, our children’s education, and our culture. When Latino families thrive, we all benefit from their contributions whether through taxes to our economy, volunteer hours at our children’s schools, or multicultural events.

In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, MomsRising is hosting a blog carnival — ¡Con Mucho Gusto! — to recognize the many contributions of Latino parents who strive every day to make a better life for their children and to strengthen our country as a whole. We also want to renew our promise to help Hispanic families attain the American Dream as part of our mission to achieve economic security for all families in our country, to help all children acquire a healthy start in life, and to end civil and human rights abuses in the name of immigration enforcement.