Are You A Fattist?

[Tea&Biscuits]

You have a point in the fact that smokers are also at great health risk - and I think this is why on applicatio forms the question DO YOU SMOKE might have a bearing on your overall application.

 

Survivor,You say your healthy and you have low colesterol etc, but dont you have diabetes due to your weight? Is this not a serious illness? And okay you might be healthy now, but what about long term, overweight people die younger - that is a quite open fact. The fact that I feel so strongly about this is that having just lost 2 stone, I tried to carry 2 stone equivalent the other day and seriously I was sweating and I couldnt carry it for long, I just feel so much better now and I feel like I preform much better at work, in life! Im not sayin this will apply to everyne, but this is just my personal slant on it. And for me, its not like I am trying to be skinny so I can look good, its about my health and I just got scared one night when I lay in bed and my heart was beating and I couldnt breath and my arm went numb, I thought I was going to die, and thats what made me think, being oveweight and unhealthy is rubbish! I dont want to die young etc I really xxxx myself

 

You also cant generalise about "young peole" not getting up for work in the morning as they have been out on a bender.

 

However you are right, it is down to image in many ways, thats what I think you have to accept. Thats the way the world is, cruel I know. I mean okay we all come in many shapes an sizes, not everyone is considered "good looking" by society and yes personality goes a longer way in the end, but the fact that people who are obese or morbidly overweight just look simply like they dont care about themselves.....which comeing from someone (me) who used to be in that catagory and IS STiLL overweight it is true. I didnt care about myself, my health and that probably resonated out to people. Luckily I have always been very confident an never had problems getting jobs, but I do think that if I had got any bigger than the size 20 I used to be I would have lost that confidence and this would have cost me dearly job wise etc.

 

The fact is that people are big is down to lifestyle at the end of the day (unless like i said, its due to thyroid or medical problem) and I just hate the "accepting" it brigade and I just seriously dont know how people who are seriously overweight can say they are healthy???

[marcus]

I think health issues over fat people have to be a genuine concern for employers.

 

Surely fat people would generally suffer more problems such as bad backs and general illness?

 

not necessarily no. I'm seriously overweight, but my cholesterol is 3.9, which is excellent, my arteries are clear, and my blood pressure is low, and i'm relatively healthy, i'm just unfit as i don't exercise too much, that said tho, it doesn't take me long to get fit once i start. I know others that have had far more days off sick than me at work who are slim. Last year i had 3 off all due to colds and no relation to my weight at all.

 

You could say the same about everyone else really, smokers for example, may suffer from asthma, or bronchitis etc, what about youngsters who decide not to come in to work because they went out the night before and got plastered and can't be bothered get out of bed because of their hangover. Being overweight has no reflection on your ability to do your job, it doesn't affect your intelligence or common sense, so what's the problem? It's basically down to image as far as i can see and that is discrimination.

 

Well said.

 

A hell of a lot of companies/organisations very much operate on 'image', they want young and slim ladies on reception to give a 'positive' first image of the company.

 

Ever seen someone overweight on the reception at a health club?

 

The discrimination is rife, its tosh that the bigger person is more likely to be sick, its just used as an excuse to pick one candidate over another.

 

When i was 28yrs i was at my peak, very fit etc.

Chollestral and blood pressure through the roof, time of work etc.

No one believed it to look at me

[Speckled Frost]

Oh come on.

 

You can't tell me fat people are as healthy as slimmer people per se.

 

Of course, a slim person who smokes 40 a day and has a heroin habit may not be as healthy as an obese person but generally, a fat person is more likely to have health problems.

 

It just is.

[marcus]

Oh come on.

 

You can't tell me fat people are as healthy as slimmer people per se.

 

Of course, a slim person who smokes 40 a day and has a heroin habit may not be as healthy as an obese person but generally, a fat person is more likely to have health problems.

 

It just is.

 

What ever the case, its up to occupational health departments to make a decision as to whether a person is up to doing the job, which is a confidential meeting between the candidate and the doctor/nurse.

 

I think what the thread is trying to get across is, that the bigger person is not been treated fairly purely on how they present physically at interview.....many don't even get to the stage of the Occupational health dept.

 

I'm sure that 99% of people who are overweight, were told by a doctor that they may struggle to meet the demands of a job because of size, would accept the decision in good grace.

[Tea&Biscuits]

I agree with what you are both saying it is discrimination on image, buyhey discrimination occurs in every form, with hundreds of different people, race, religion, disability, sex, age, sexuality, but I guess most of these things are tested when you fill out your equal opportunity forms. I just hope that one day we dont have to employ a "qoata of obese people" so as not to discriminate........?

 

I still think though that the reason why an overweight person would not get a job over a smaller canditate (both will equal quals, experience, personality) would be because of the health issue that bigger people are percieved as having and because of the stereotypes that come with being overweight.

 

And of course you wouldnt get a fat person in the reception of a health club.........obv not great marketing??!

 

 

I think one discrimination that tops the fat issue is your accent - i think your accent could determine straight away whether you get a job or not moreover than the way you look. My northern accent worked for me in London when I was younger, it was considered cute and homely, but now I am working in more serious jobs, the northern accent just dosent cut it...

[Speckled Frost]

I'm in no way saying that a fat person shouldn't get the job if he/she is the better candidate.

 

But we all have to accept that if two candidates are equal in qualifications, interview performance, etc, the employer is going to boil it down to a less reasonable and most probably covert reason such as size, accent or maybe even hair colour.

[Survivor]

i'm beginning to wish i hadn't started this thread now as it's winding me up and making my low blood pressure very high! yes i have diabeties, but only once has it affected my health to cause me to take a day off work in the past 7 years. And personally, i take great pride in my appearance and would be horrified to walk down the street looking as if i didn't care about what i looked like.

 

I just find it unbelievable in this day in age, that you can discriminate against a fat person, but god forbid you call a handicapped person a cripple!!

[Lonan3]

Someone being chosen for a job purely on appearance?

Perish the thought!

[Survivor]

annnnnnndddddddddddddd........... another thing! having diabeties doesn't mean i'm unhealthy - ffs Halle Berry has it, so does Steve Redgrave - are they unhealthy? NO. Yes I have it because of my weight, but you don't get diabeties JUST because of your weight

 

[/rant]

[marcus]

i'm beginning to wish i hadn't started this thread now as it's winding me up and making my low blood pressure very high! yes i have diabeties, but only once has it affected my health to cause me to take a day off work in the past 7 years. And personally, i take great pride in my appearance and would be horrified to walk down the street looking as if i didn't care about what i looked like.

 

I just find it unbelievable in this day in age, that you can discriminate against a fat person, but god forbid you call a handicapped person a cripple!!

 

Unfortunatly, many think that being overweight is something that can be changed, unlike the colour of skin, disability, and its not always the case, and why should you have to lose weight anyway?

 

As long as Occ. health say you are fit enough, thats all that matters.

Its employers that need to change their attitudes.

[Tea&Biscuits]

i'm beginning to wish i hadn't started this thread now as it's winding me up and making my low blood pressure very high! yes i have diabeties, but only once has it affected my health to cause me to take a day off work in the past 7 years. And personally, i take great pride in my appearance and would be horrified to walk down the street looking as if i didn't care about what i looked like.

 

I just find it unbelievable in this day in age, that you can discriminate against a fat person, but god forbid you call a handicapped person a cripple!!

 

 

Sorry Survivor but how can you equal a disabled person with an obese person - did the disabled person eat themselves disabled...NO, infact im insulted that this vain of argument has been mentioned. Im sure any disabled person would be very annoyed to lumped in with obese people who are simply fat cause they ate too much???????

[Survivor]

i'm beginning to wish i hadn't started this thread now as it's winding me up and making my low blood pressure very high! yes i have diabeties, but only once has it affected my health to cause me to take a day off work in the past 7 years. And personally, i take great pride in my appearance and would be horrified to walk down the street looking as if i didn't care about what i looked like.

 

I just find it unbelievable in this day in age, that you can discriminate against a fat person, but god forbid you call a handicapped person a cripple!!

 

 

Sorry Survivor but how can you equal a disabled person with an obese person - did the disabled person eat themselves disabled...NO, infact im insulted that this vain of argument has been mentioned. Im sure any disabled person would be very annoyed to lumped in with obese people who are simply fat cause they ate too much???????

 

I'm not comparing a handicapped person to an obese person. I was pointing out the hypocrisy of the PC world these days that it's ok to discriminate against an overweight person and yet i can't call a handicapped person a cripple without being crucified.

 

you can wind your neck back in now!

[Tea&Biscuits]

Hey Marcus would you like your kids to be overweight??? Picked on at school etc, nah didnt think so, any parent wants the best for their kids, and I was an overweight child and it was horrible.

 

How can overweight be ok? Its just isnt accepted so readily in the western world. And I believe that weight can be changed, unless we are talking medical conditions that I dont know about, but anyone who is simply overweight cause they eat more cals than they burn have the power to change that.

 

Hell, im still overweight and I hate it, it is hard to loose it, its a constant battle, its also sobering to realise thta I have slow metabolism and that I have to for the rest of my life, watch what I eat/drink...but I dont want to be "fat and happy" thats just bull.

Im all for different shapes and sizes and I think that the diversity in life in who we are is amazing, but I just cant condone being obese as an ok thing, its the same as saying "yea smoke 20 a day" its not that bad.... both apparently have the same type of long term risks.

[Tea&Biscuits]

Survivor the mere mention that you compared the "discrimination" between a fat person and a disabled jus shows the way you may think about this issue. No its not ok to discriminate against anyone for any reason, yet disabled people have a completely different set of problems than someone who is obese.

 

This just shows that you thnk fat people must come into their own sub group and handled as a "vunerable group of people" which to me is insulting to actual vunerable groups of people, or people left out by society - the mere fact you got turned down for a job cause someone told you you were too big seems a little less important than someone in a wheelchair who has never worked in their life becuase workplaces wont fit the correct facilites?????? So I think that the types of discrimination big people face are slightly minor to other groups and its insulting to put yourself in that catagory.

 

Also no one said it was ok to call obese people names or discriminate, and its also not okay to call a disabled person a cripple. I thought we were talking about work, not name calling.

[marcus]

Hey Marcus would you like your kids to be overweight??? Picked on at school etc, nah didnt think so, any parent wants the best for their kids, and I was an overweight child and it was horrible.

 

How can overweight be ok? Its just isnt accepted so readily in the western world. And I believe that weight can be changed, unless we are talking medical conditions that I dont know about, but anyone who is simply overweight cause they eat more cals than they burn have the power to change that.

 

Hell, im still overweight and I hate it, it is hard to loose it, its a constant battle, its also sobering to realise thta I have slow metabolism and that I have to for the rest of my life, watch what I eat/drink...but I dont want to be "fat and happy" thats just bull.

Im all for different shapes and sizes and I think that the diversity in life in who we are is amazing, but I just cant condone being obese as an ok thing, its the same as saying "yea smoke 20 a day" its not that bad.... both apparently have the same type of long term risks.

 

Steady on T+B are making assumptions that may kids are slim, you know nothing about me.

 

Look, i don't want an arguement here, its all got rather sensitive and bringing up painful issues for people.

 

The report was simply about, SOME employers on SOME occasions, not employing someone because of their weight, which is fundementally wrong.

 

There's nothing wrong with being overweight, just as there's nothing wrong in being unhappy to be overweight.

 

The 'all shapes, sizes and diversity' you mention is what is trying to be addressed, any health issues that may be evident, is for occupational health, not for a prospective employer to presume the overweight person may or may not suffer from.