Workplace Discrimination Against the Obese

Workplace discrimination against individuals who are overweight and obese is on the rise, despite the fact that more and more Americans fall into that category. The discrimination ranges from excluding obese employees from certain activities, paying them lower salaries and implementing policies that have the effect of excluding obese people. When combined with the stigma of being overweight and the social acceptability of openly airing biases against people who are fat, obese individuals often feel they have little recourse but to grin and bear it. But they don't have to do that.

Facts About Obesity in the United States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) labels American society as "obesogenic," which means our lifestyles promote unhealthy eating and sedentary living. It is not surprising then that more than one-third of the population is considered obese. The CDC estimates that the direct and indirect cost of obesity (much of it in health care spending) is about $147 billion each year. Surprisingly, the more each of us weighs, the greater the amount of open bias is expressed against people who are overweight in all domains of life, in media, in schools and certainly in the workplace. Some research suggests that because being thin is becoming increasingly rarer, discrimination against the overweight is more accepted.
Obesity Discrimination in the Workplace

Discrimination against people who are obese is as common as that against minorities. Moreover being overweight has been proven to affect one's salary. Routinely, an obese person's experience includes being excluded from certain activities, passed over for promotion and being the butt of unrestrained joking. But part of the problem many obese people face is that it is difficult to prove that a worker is being discriminated against because of his weight. Moreover, overweight people, especially the women among them, pay a huge price in terms of their salary. They earn considerably less money than normal-weight individuals according to research, making discrimination against them clear-cut.

Wellness in the Workplace

Another factor making the plight of obese workers tough is that employers are stepping up efforts to reduce the cost of health care and increasing the incentives for employees to kick bad habits and get healthier. There is a business case to wellness programs in the workplace. The toll of lost days, restrictions on activities employees can perform and doctor visits add up. The cumulative effect, however, is that those workers who are significantly overweight are both demoralized and demonized and in a position of not being able to say so.

Workplace Policy Discrimination

Some companies have implemented policies whereby overweight employees have to pay more for their health insurance, because of the increased risk of greater spending obesity-related health care necessitates. The bottom line is that even well-meaning policy may cross the line and be discriminating against people who are overweight and intrude into their private lives.

Recourse

People who feel they've been discriminated against or made to work in a hostile environment because of their weight have a tough job ahead of them in proving their weight was at issue, as well as combating the mind-set that keeps weight bias firmly in place.

Some have attempted to gain protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act, claiming obesity was a disability. Few have succeeded with this argument because for many there was no proven physiological, no-fault cause of obesity. That means there aren't any federal laws that specifically prohibit this kind of discrimination.

In most workplaces, however, equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws prohibit specific types of employment discrimination, including on the basis of race, sex, age, gender, nationality and disability status. Only a handful of states, including California and Michigan, specifically include weight as a category of workplace discrimination. What really has to change is the culture and its response to obesity. Advocates for obese people say the best way to enjoy a fruitful career is to look for companies that do well with all types of diversity and work in a way to challenge the stereotypes and biases against them.

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OVERWEIGHT PASSENGERS. SHOULD THEY BE CHARGED MORE?

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Discussing overweight passengers is like discussing politics or religion around the Thanksgiving dinner table with family: generally not a good idea.

When I saw the picture above, though, I felt compelled to address the issue. The picture you see was allegedly taken by an American Airlines flight attendant. Since bins are open and people are standing up, it appears it was taken during boarding.

I think we can all agree that allowing a passenger to protrude halfway into the aisle is clearly a safety violation. I also think it is safe to assume that the passenger was re-seated before takeoff to a row with an open middle seat.

Most U.S. airlines, including United and American, will not charge passengers of size (POS) for an extra seat as long as there are other open seats on the plane. I support this policy because I see no reason to castigate a POS further, especially when obesity is not always wholly dependent on lifestyle choice.

The problem arises when a flight is full and an airline is left with the choice of letting a POS literally occupy 1.5-2 Economy seats by allowing the arm rest to stay up and squeezing the other passengers in the row or having to VDB or even IDB a passenger to accommodate the POS. In such cases, I think an airline must give the POS the choice of stepping off the flight and waiting for the next one with an extra seat or paying for an extra ticket, perhaps at a lower cost.

Some posit that airline seats are too small and POS have no other alternatives. I disagree. United offers Economy Plus and First Class on most mainline domestic flights and Economy Plus, Business, and First Class on most international flights. Furthermore, it is not like airlines can easily (or even not so easily) install couches or rotund lazy boy recliners in their planes. To mandate that airlines compromise and dismantle a well-planned seating arrangements to accommodate a tiny sliver of the flying public is no more reasonable than arguing that an airline must make half-size seats available to compact people and only charge half-price for them.

Another analogy might be passenger baggage. Are bigger passengers allowed a higher weight allowance on checked bag? Of course not. They pay the same price as others and must abide by the same weight limits. Why should it be any different with onboard seating? 

In some cases, like the picture above, any airplane seat (short of Singapore's A380 suites) would likely be too small for the passenger. In such cases, I believe a carrier should reserve the right to refuse passage on the grounds of passenger safety--both for the POS and others.

Am I missing something? How do you propose airlines deal with POS? Unfortunately, it is a growing problem in America. No pun intended.

SHOULD OVERWEIGHT AIRPLANE PASSENGERS BE CHARGED MORE? DEBATE
SHOULD OBESE PASSENGERS HAVE TO PAY MORE? DEBATE

Cutting short lunch time in school may lead to obesity

School districts across the country are revamping their menus to serve healthier fare, but most schools give students so little time to eat that they could be contributing unwittingly to the childhood obesity problem.

Children who bring their lunch would typically have a little more time to eat because they don't have to stand in line to get their meal, experts say.

Healthy food can take longer to eat, and research shows that wolfing down a meal in a hurry often means people eat more.

A new national survey by the School Nutrition Association shows elementary kids have about 25 minutes for lunch; middle school and high school students about 30 minutes. That includes the time students need to go to the restroom, wash their hands, walk to the cafeteria and stand in line for their meals.
Many students may have only about 10 to 15 minutes left to eat their meals, school nutrition directors say. But students should have at least 20 minutes to eat their lunch, the government recommends.
"It's a problem in a lot of districts. There's not a lot of time to get their food, sit down and eat their fill," says Helen Phillips, president of the School Nutrition Association, and senior director of school nutrition for Norfolk (Va.) Public Schools.
Many students feel rushed. The typical length of the lunch has been about the same since 2009, but it's shorter than in 2003 when kids got up to five more minutes. Children in some countries, such as France, get as long as one to two hours to eat lunch.

U.S. research shows that when people eat quickly, they consume more calories, enjoy the meal less and feel hungrier an hour later . This lunch-period dilemma comes at a time when about a third of children and adolescents — 25 million kids — are obese or overweight, government statistics show.

Almost 32 million kids eat the school lunch every day, and more than 11 million eat the breakfast served there. Overall, kids consume about 30% to 50% of their calories in the school meal programs.
The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to set new nutrition standards for all food served in schools, from lunchrooms to vending machines. Those standards are being developed now, but in the meantime, the school food service directors have already made lots of improvements, Phillips says. The new survey of 1,294 school nutrition directors from the School Nutrition Association found that most schools are offering fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, salad bars or entree salads, and fat-free and 1% milk.

But those kinds of foods often take more time to eat, Phillips says. "It takes more time to chew a whole apple than apple sauce. Eating an entree salad takes longer than eating a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets, because of the crunching and chewing of the raw vegetables."  Sometimes kids eat their favorite foods first, and if they run out of time, those vegetables may land in the trash, she says.
Children who bring their lunch would typically have a little more time to eat because they don't have to stand in line to get their meal, she says. Whether or not it's enough time depends on the child and the length of the period. "The younger elementary kids tend to eat slowly."

The pressure of all the different academic demands affects the lunch schedules, Phillips says, so food service directors work with principals to make sure lunch hours are staggered so everyone is served quickly.
Many factors come into play when determining lunch periods, including building size, the number of serving lines, the seating in the cafeteria and the number of students coming to the cafeteria at any given time, she says.
Taylor adds: "I don't know if there is a perfect answer. Every building is different, every principal is different."

When people look back on the childhood obesity epidemic in this country and wonder how it spiraled out of control, they may blame the way kids were rushed to eat too fast, not just at school but at home, Taylor says.
"I think we have diminished the joy of sitting down and enjoying a meal. Now, the attitude is we should sit down and eat and get it over with."

Advice for parents:
Food service workers try to make it easy for kids to eat healthful foods. Parents can do the same when packing their lunches, they say.

For instance, Helen Phillips, senior director of school nutrition for Norfolk (Va.) Public Schools says her staff uses packaged fresh produce, such as baby carrots, apple slices, grapes and pineapple spears, so if a child runs out of time to eat the food at lunch, they can take the food with them in their backpack and eat them on their way home, at snack time or between classes, if the school allows that. 

She recommends that parents cut most fruits and vegetables into small bite-size pieces for elementary children. “Elementary kids are often missing their front teeth and can’t easily bite into an apple or peach.”

Sometimes kids this age have a hard time manipulating the straws into their juice or milk boxes so it may be easier for them if parents choose a reusable containers with a pullup spout, she says.

Working Overtime May Increase Risk of Obesity

Do you put extra hours in at work? Do you pick up extra shifts to generate overtime pay? Does the ever-growing pile of work on your desk cause you to stay late? Do you cut yourself short on sleep because of the pressures and demands of work?

If you do, you're like plenty of other working adults who are logging long hours, coping with work-related stress, and generally not getting enough rest. Overwork and little sleep can affect every aspect of our lives, from relationships, job performance and daily well-being to our fundamental health. A new study suggests that difficult and demanding work schedules also can contribute to obesity.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine investigated the association between obesity and work schedules among 1,700 women nurses. Among the nurses in the study, 700 were determined to have unfavorable, or adverse, work schedules. The remaining 1,000 nurses were considered to have favorable work schedules. Researchers then examined the incidence of obesity among each group, and factors related to health behaviors, home demands, and work demands that might contribute to obesity. They found a majority of nurses were overweight or obese, and that work schedules appeared to influence the risk factors that contributed to weight problems.

Nursing is a demanding and high-stakes profession. While nurses are on the front lines of caring for patients' health and well-being, many are also likely to be working long hours, working evenings and overnight, or on schedules that rotate between day and night. In this regard, nurses are like the millions of Americans who are employed in shift work -- jobs that require workers to keep irregular schedules, which often require them to work during nighttime hours and to sleep during some portion of the day.

Shift work poses a number of well-documented challenges to health and to sleep. Shift workers are more likely than regular workers to suffer from disrupted and low sleep. They are also at elevated risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes. Shift work is common among jobs that involve public health and public safety, from police and firefighters to transportation workers, doctors, EMTs, and yes, nurses.

We also know a lot about the connection between the lack of sleep and weight problems. Not getting enough sleep causes hormonal changes that stimulate appetite. Being short on sleep prompts changes in the brain that make junk food even more attractive than it already is. Sleep deprivation lowers metabolism and diminishes the judgment and willpower necessary to make smart food choices. Sleeping less often translates into weighing more, over the long term.

We all have different work demands, different schedules, and different challenges related to our jobs. One thing we have in common? To the extent that our work conditions are interfering with our sleep, they may also be negatively affecting our weight.

VOCABULARY:

Shift: (the period of time worked by such a group-a group of workers who work for a specific period)

Overtime pay: pago por horas extraordinarias

Schedule: a list of tasks to be performed, esp within a set period. Timetable (horario, programa, plan)

High-stakes : used to describe a situation that has a lot of risk and in which someone is likely to either get or lose an advantage, a lot of money, etc.

In this regard: a este respecto, en este sentido

Shift work: trabajo por turnos

Prompt: (cause) dar pie a, provoca

Disrupted sleep: perturbación del sueño, sueño interrumpido.

Deprivation: being without ( carencia, privación)

FOOD, OBESITY: LISTENING WITH SCRIPTS AND VOCABULARY

   

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OBESE CHILDREN REJECT SURGERY
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GPs STUGGLE WITH CHILD OBESITY
UK IS WARNED OVER OBESITY LEVELS
OBESITY SPREADS AMONG THE YOUNG
OBESITY NOT INDIVIDUAL'S FAULT
SURGERY TO TACKLE RISING OBESITY