26,337 pieces of wellbeing

Late last year, I told you about the government's guide on how to fit in, have everyone like you and always be happy.



They called it "A Guide for Maintaining Health and Wellbeing". It has helpful instructions on the importance of making your bed, eating right (including checking the use-by date when buying food!), having a 'growth mindset' and all that.

I kinda wondered about how it is that folks who need to be told not to hit the snooze button too often get to set the rules about how everyone else runs their lives.

And I also wondered a bit about the cost - the hard copies are very nice; it would be a bit surprising if they were less than $20 a pop. Glossy thick pages (134 of them), spiral bound, and with those cuts at the edge so that you can quickly thumb to the different sections. What are those called anyway?

A loyal reader put in an OIA request to find out how many copies of the guide had been ordered.

The total spend on this won't have been small.

I'm also now a bit curious about orders adjusted by Ministry and Agency staffing. The Ministry of Education has a huge staff, but didn't need to order many copies - 2 in total. MBIE has more staff, and ordered 5800.

I also wonder whether those agencies who put in more orders per staff member experienced any greater increase in wellbeing as consequence.

Many thanks to the anonymous reader who put in the request.