Obese workers passed over in hiring, promotions -report

[Mule]

LONDON (Reuters) - Overweight workers in Britain are discriminated against when applying for positions, passed over for promotions, and more likely to loose their jobs, a report said on Tuesday.

In a survey of more than 2,000 personnel officers by Personnel Today magazine, 93 percent said they would choose an applicant of "normal weight" over an obese applicant with the same experience and qualifications.

"Overweight workers are being marginalized and given fewer opportunities than their slimmer counterparts," editor Karen Dempsey said in a statement.

The survey also showed that 30 percent of human resource managers believe obesity is a valid medical reason for not employing a person.

Some 15 percent said they would be less likely to promote an obese person, and around one in 10 said they thought firms could fairly dismiss someone who was overweight.

One in five English adults is obese and the number has tripled in the two decades to 2001, according to the last survey of obesity by the UK's National Audit Office.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsAr...archived=False

[WalterPill]

and around one in 10 said they thought firms could fairly dismiss someone who was overweight.

That made me laugh.

Boss: Dave, you're sacked.

Dave: But why???

Boss: Because you're a fat cunt.

[Cenus_]

We've had this at my place though, overly fat drivers have been laid off cos it doesnt look good to the customer when some fat bastard is trying to lift a fridge into your house and getts out of breath just knocking on the front door.

[Fusen]

seems fair enough to me

and they only asked 2000 people remember, this whole "our survey of x number of people represents the whole world" bollocks is daft

[{{909}}]

i dont see this as discrimination at all, if your fat, you cant perform in most situations as well as a "normal" person, anythin that requires phisical work is out of the question, and anything in the public eye is gonna be in doubt too, noone wants to look at some sweaty obese guy at the end of the day. Its sad but its just a fact. You dont get ugly cunts being supermodels, its not discrimination, its just that ugly cunts dont make good models

[whatnow]

stop eating cheesy poofs

i also dont see this as discrimination, yes some poeple do have medical conditions where they get obese, which would lead me to think that they might be unsuitable for some jobs anyway becuase of their medical condition. There will always be a perfect job for everyone, no doubt about that, but as everyone has said, anything physicl, face to face with the public or simular aint gonna make the obese people front of the line for it. It's just a fact that people dont really like chunksters, if you are one it's better all round (mainly health wise) to trim down anyway...

[CzarJunkie]

The problem is not going to go away anytime soon either, society actively encourages people into obesity.

When people look at fat people they consider them to be lazy, have a lack of motivation and be stupid. I think there is a case for the first 2 but obviously not the 3rd.

As a nation we should be taking some radical steps if we are to overcome this problem, Jamie Oliver made an impact with his School Dinners initiative but I'd like to see a whole raft of changes to help kids become better educated about food and also have less temptation.

Firstly they should ban the advertising of fast food, sweets and unhealthy snacks such as crisps etc that are aimed at children. Children do not have money of their own so advertising aimed at them is morally bankrupt as far as I'm concerned. Having said that, parents also have a duty to educate and feed their kids correctly.

I'd also like to see regulation of the fast food industry which would stop fast food giants like McD's and Burger King aiming their products at children and adding enticements such as toy figures or the latest kids movie branded happy meals etc.

There is also a case to regulate the food industry as a whole to provide better food and to change farming practices to stop the cheap production of food. The cost of food hasn't risen in decades and accounts for a much smaller proportion of our incomes than it used to. Food shoud be produced to a high standard, intensive farming methods should be curtailed and food should be more expensive than it is now.

That brings me on nicely to the giant money making machines that are the supermarkets. Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda have a lot to answer for, they are so powerful that producers have no option but to conform to their wishes and at the moment they are demanding produce at ever cheaper prices. This leaves the farmers with no option but to cut costs and this means the quality of the produce goes down and the farming methods that have been introduced as a result of this cost cutting actually affects the nutritional value of our food.

Cheap food is good for no one, not good for the consumer and it certainly isn't good for the producer, they only benefit goes to the giant supermarket who encourage us to eat more by providing us with a multitude of nutritionally questionable products at prices we are conned into believing are bargains.

Obesity related diseases are a major drain on NHS resources and this is going to get progressively worse if, as a society, we continue to be encouarged to consume more and more increasingly cheap and nutritionally bankrupt food.

[stevie2001]

@ Czar

That is an awesome post..one of the best I`ve read.

I agree with every word, but how do you/we change things?

As to the discrimination of obese people. Descrimination goes on all the time, but isn`t publicised for obvious reasons.