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A good female friend of mine has been unemployed now for over a year but is still collecting unemployment benefits. She will likely collect benefits for the whole 99 weeks because she is not having any luck at all finding a job. I think that much of her trouble is her weight. She is big really big. She told me she has gained almost 100 pounds from the stress and is now 360 pounds. In all honesty, she looks just terrible.
My friend had a relatively successful career as an Administrative Assistant but after a year of unemployment she has sent out hundreds of resumes and had only four interviews. Each time she was brought in for an interview she was given a shocked look and sent packing in a few minutes. No one said she was too fat but she could tell by their body language that they wanted her gone as fast as possible.
If you were a hiring manager would you strongly consider a woman who was 5 foot 4 360 pounds for an adminstrative job in your company?
You don't put on a 100 pounds due to stress. You put on a 100 pounds due to a massive out of balance between intake and output of calories
Or a medical problem. With a 100 pound gain in a year I suspect a combination of a medical problem and overeating for the amount of calories expended. Either way, excercise would help.
I would consider them yes, if they had the qualifications for the job. I wouldn't seriously consider someone's weight to be an impediment to an office job. Certainly not more than other impediments that may not be visible in other candidates like arthritis or rheumatism, psychological disturbances, et cetera.
Losing weight is a lot easier in the magazines and tv and internet message boards than it is IRL. Especially if the cause of her weight gain was stress/increased cortisol levels and not eating/exercise, changing her diet won't change anything. Even getting a job and reducing stress may not, because unfortunately the body just puts on weight easier than it loses it.She needs to get healthy because that will give her confidence and energy that will convey in a job interview. But that may not result in weight loss.
She may also need some help with interview attire. If she's gained 100 lbs, her professional wardrobe may not fit properly and that be a red flag to interviewers. And she needs supportive friends.
I would consider them yes, if they had the qualifications for the job. I wouldn't seriously consider someone's weight to be an impediment to an office job.
I have to disagree, I've seen it with my own eyes. A former coworker was too heavy to bend/stoop/kneel and was unable to do a significant part of her job, which was filing. When she was let go we found about two years of backlogged filing that would have all gone in lower draws hidden in her office.
I really wish I had taken photos of her office after she was gone--it looked like something from that reality TV show "Hoarders." She was really clever about hiding the filing in with boxes of files that had been retreived from storage for an audit. This was the same woman who got a pedicure every other week because by her own admission she couldn't reach her toenails to clip them.
It was enough that it took a temp almost a week to get it all caught up.
Annerk, the plural of anecdote is not data. You saw one person who was unable to do their job. That doesn't mean the same is true for every person. And certainly doesn't mean that hiring a thin person means they are free from impediments.
And I would hardly call A WEEK of work a major undertaking on the part of the temp.
Annerk, the plural of anecdote is not data. You saw one person who was unable to do their job. That doesn't mean the same is true for every person. And certainly doesn't mean that hiring a thin person means they are free from impediments.
And I would hardly call A WEEK of work a major undertaking on the part of the temp.
I didn't say it was true for every worker, but it's something that needs to be considered. It's no different than considering if a very slender person has the ability to do manual labor that requires a lot of heavy lifting.
Had this woman done her job as it should have been done all along, there would have been no need for a temp. It wasn't that she didn't have the time to do the job, she was unable to due to her weight. She had been warned about it by her boss when he realized it was several months behind, and that's when she simply began hiding it. Why should the employer have to spend money to have someone else do what this employee had been paid to do?
The point is that many morbidly obese people can't bend/stoop/kneel and if filing is a part of the job, I would take their physical ability to do that job into consideration prior to extending an offer.
It really depends. Is she able to walk around the office without requiring an oxygen mask? On those busy days, is she able to run around the office performing her tasks without her weight being a hindrence? If I had an applicant, the interview would be very important as it would allow me to see her walk in the office and notice if she's short winded, having difficulty getting around, etc.
Encourage her and motivate her to lose weight, and do physical activities with her and help her come up with cheap, healthy diet plans.
I wouldn't rule her out if she was highly qualified for a particular position. But her body screams high future health care costs as well as possible medical leave. And someone like her would appear to lack self-respect, self control and discipline. There are many fat people who claim its genetics but I think that's bogus for the most part. Your friend needs to get fanatical about sticking to a diet and making exercise a part of her daily routine.
Last edited by Oberleutnant; 06-19-2010 at 01:54 PM..
I wouldn't rule her out if she was highly qualified for a particular position. But her body screams high future health care costs as well as possible medical leave. And someone like her would appear to lack self-respect, self control and discipline. There are many fat people who claim its genetics but I think that's bogus for the most part. Your friend needs to get fanatical about sticking to a diet and making exercise a part of her daily routine.
Wow, so I guess the entire medical community is wrong, but you are right??? What arrogance. And any time you have to use the word "fanatical" there's something wrong (with you).
Quote:
If I had an applicant, the interview would be very important as it would allow me to see her walk in the office and notice if she's short winded, having difficulty getting around, etc.
Demanding that an applicant pass certain tests like a walking test, that other applicants aren't required to pass, is a risky proposition for an employer.
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She was really clever about hiding the filing in with boxes of files that had been retreived from storage for an audit. This was the same woman who got a pedicure every other week because by her own admission she couldn't reach her toenails to clip them. 
