"Lazy obese" workers face office discrimination

From a survey done by Slimming World of 2,000 British adults 18 years of age or older.  (Of the 2,000 participants, approximately 227 were employers.)

The survey explored the discrimination overweight people face in the workplace.  Participants of the study were questioned about their attitudes toward obesity in the workplace.  Their responses were matched to their Body Mass Index.

Slimming World made a statement on its website that “individuals who are overweight are twice as likely to suffer bullying about their weight and six times more likely to feel their appearance has caused them to miss out on a promotion”.

The survey found that only 16% of obese respondents said they feel co-workers support their effort to lose weight.  On the other hand, 25% said they have received negative comments from co-workers about their weight at work.

People who had a BMI 40+ (highest weight category) were four times as likely to “never” have high self-esteem and felt discouraged to apply for a job.

Employers who were male were more discriminatory.  Approximately 25% of male bosses said they would not hire an individual because of their weight and 1 in 10 said they have done so in the past.

Posted by: suhujitha on 2010-01-17 19:55:43

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