Shamed at work because of your weight?

Discrimination against overweight and obese people in the workplace is a problem around the world. — dpa

Fat people are undisciplined, lazy, stupid, low-performing and prone to illness – such is the stubborn prejudice that still exists in many human resources (HR) departments around the world.

Asked to assess people on the basis of photographs showing their face and upper torso, a group of 127 experienced HR professionals underestimated the prestige of overweight individuals’ occupations and overestimated it for normal-weight individuals in an experimental study conducted by the University of Tuebingen in Germany.

Overweight individuals were more often disqualified from being hired and less often nominated for a supervisory position according to the study, published several years ago in the journal BMC Public Health.

Stigmatisation was most pronounced for obese women.

“Yet, fat people are aware of how they’re seen, so they’re often extra motivated and willing to work in order to dispel the preconceptions,” says Natalie Rosenke, chairwoman of the Berlin-based Society Against Weight Discrimination (GgG).

“It’d be nice if jobs were given solely on the basis of qualifications.”

In the experience of Stefanie Peters (not her real name), a corpulent, 46-year-old lawyer, people of her proportions are widely thought to be incapable of having a prestigious occupation, “particularly in conservative-leaning legal circles”.

“Because of my weight, less is expected of me.

“I’ve since learned to deal with it self-assuredly, as I’m good at my job,” she says.

“But it was hard during my studies and in the early years.”

Her self-assurance has its limits, however, such as when, in the normal course of her work, she has to pass through narrow security screening stations in the courthouse.

“Some stations are terribly narrow, and I’m jammed in while the security guards stand by smirking,” she says, describing the situation as mortifying, but conceding that she’s not always in the mood to address it.

Addressing your discomfiture is the method of choice to deal with fat-shaming, however, according to Sabine G Fischer, a health and social services coach who also counsels people with a high body weight.

If a co-worker makes a derogatory remark regarding your weight, she says you should promptly speak to the person in private about it.

Difficult though it may be, you should make it clear to the person, in a firm voice and looking him or her in the eye, that you won’t tole-rate such offensive behaviour.

“If the person remains unregenerate, you should speak with your superiors.

“And if that doesn’t help, then you should inform the company’s management in writing about the incident,” she advises.

She also recommends that corpulent career starters broach the subject of their weight in job applications or interviews.

“We can’t hide our weight, but we can sound out whether we’ll encounter prejudices in the company.

“If we get clear signals that we’re unwanted, we’ve looked after ourselves well and can spare ourselves unpleasant situations,” she remarks.

But it’s perfectly fine if potential employers speak about your excess weight objectively, she says.

“Asking what it’s like to live with such a high body weight is OK so long as it’s not formulated in a disparaging way.

“Or if supervisors ask openly whether your work capacity is lower because of your weight, you can clear that up.”

Some companies go out of their way to welcome overweight people.

Last year (2019), for example, the German work-life balance consulting firm pme Familienservice launched a campaign targeting hefty hirees.

The firm’s chief executive officer Alexa Ahmad has herself suffered weight-related disdain, disparagement and disapproving looks in her professional life.

“We encourage people to submit a job application to us, who have experienced harassment or discrimination because of their weight,” she says, adding that what counts is the contribution each individual can make to the workflow. – By Katja Wallrafen/dpa