Subscribe to RSS @
A piece on the BBC news site today – Overweight job hunters ‘lose out’ – discusses some interesting statistics about the recruitment of overweight or obese people.
A Personnel Today magazine survey of 2,000 personnel officers found most preferred to offer jobs to workers of a “normal weight”. Half of those polled thought obesity affected productivity. A similar number believed overweight people lacked self-discipline. The magazine’s editor Karen Dempsey said it suggested hidden discrimination and overweight people were missing out.
She said: “To date, obesity has not been given the same recognition as sex, age, disabilities and race discrimination.
In more ways than one it is obvious that I am lucky to have been able to retire early as despite my technical skills and many years experience I am totally unemployable. I am overweight. I am over 50. And in some areas I would also fail for being a white, able-bodied male.
I’m fat and I’ve had quite a few jobs. I think the problem is that a lot of fat people don’t like themselves and that comes across in the way they sell themselves.
There may be some truth to this notion but the stats raised in the artical suggest that for many overweight people it wont matter anyway. And we already know that there is huge and foolish age discrimination going on.
And let’s not forget that height and beauty have also been shown to be factors in hiring. So tall, skinny, beautiful people must be the best workers.
Well thanks joecm! I can now add being 5 foot 5 and a half to my list
And I think I can forget about the beauty as well.