Pongo Resume

What a shocker... This recent study from Michigan State University proves that fat employees are NOT "lazier, more emotionally unstable, and harder to get along with" than their normal-weight peers. Really!

I'm sure those of us who fall into the 65-ish percent of the U.S. population characterized as "overweight or obese" are relieved to learn that we're not all lousy employees, despite these "widely held stereotypes."

I just can't help wondering why they needed a flippin' study to figure out that you can't attribute a single set of characteristics to an entire group of people, just because they share a physical attribute.

What's next, a study to tell us not all blondes are dumb?

Mark Roehling, a lawyer and associate professor of human resource management at MSU, and two colleagues conducted the study with 3,500 adult subjects. They found (hold onto your hats…) no empirical evidence to support the stereotypes about, ahem, people of size.

Here's how they put it:

"…overweight and obese adults were not found to be significantly less conscientious, less agreeable, less extraverted or less emotionally stable…" [emphasis mine]

As much as I question the need for the study, I should applaud the researchers' conclusion that employers should be proactive in preventing negative stereotypes from influencing their hiring, promoting, and firing decisions.

It's just that it's taking all of my strength to not finish that statement with, "Ya think?!"

In fairness, the researchers do present some excellent, practical steps employers can take to prevent weight bias from affecting employment decisions, including:

• Enacting a policy that specifically disallows weight as a hiring consideration unless it relates directly to the job;
• Using validated measures of personality traits (as opposed to assumptions) if those traits are related to the job; and
• Adding discussions of weight-related stereotypes to diversity training programs.

With the exception of the state of Michigan (and pending legislation in Massachusetts), U.S. workers are not protected from discrimination based on weight or size. But what difference does it make? You can't legislate common sense or fairness.

Does anyone really believe there's no more discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age – all of which are protected by law?

The truth is, good employers far outnumber the bad. And good employers know that great employees (being a subset of the human race) come in all sorts of shapes, sizes, colors, backgrounds, belief systems, lifestyles, personalities, ages, and abilities.

So do your best with what you've got, and stick with the basics of job hunting. Show employers how your skills, talents, and qualifications will add value to their team, and you'll soon be in fat city.

Have you faced discrimination as a job seeker (weight-based or otherwise)? Do you believe recruiters and hiring managers profile job candidates based on stereotypes? Please share your thoughts or experiences on this important topic.

Discrimination isn't cool, but in my experiences, a very high percentage of overweight co-workers throughout my working life have had to miss several days of work per year because of health issues attributed to their weight. And most places I've worked at have had workout facilities on the premises and offered many programs internally to assist their employees in becoming healthier through diet and weight reduction.

Everyone discriminates, whether based on weight, race, sex, or whatever. If I had to hire someone for a position and I needed to be able to rely on that person being in the office every day to contribute, then I'm going to hire someone that appears to be healthy. That's just the way it is. I wouldn't draft a player out of college that is severely overweight for my swimming team, so why would I hire someone who may not be physically fit enough to perform the duties that the position requires?

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, John.

Your comment reminds me of the saying that we tend to see what we look for.

I wonder how you came by the knowledge that the health issues experienced by the "very high percentage of overweight co-workers" were "attributed to their weight." Maybe their illnesses were attributed to smoking or drinking. Maybe they simply got sick, like "normal" people.

I agree that everyone discriminates. It's human nature. The point I hoped to make was that we need to examine and reject our prejudices, our assumptions, and our beliefs and go on the facts.

Is this person the best one for the job? Will their size negatively affect their performance?

I wouldn't draft a severely overweight swimmer for my team, either (unless s/he was a faster swimmer than the thinner candidates).

Julie

Julie,

I came by the knowledge that the people I mentioned before had health issues related to their weight because I worked in the Human Resources department and was quite familiar with the cases because of insurance claims that I worked on with those people. I wasn't just assuming their health issues were related to their weight without having any facts.

Because of this, when conducting interviews I have no choice but to include these facts as I know them. Sure, we all try not to discriminate and it's illegal to do so, but really, everybody does to some point subconsciously no matter what you're doing, whether it's interviewing candidates, walking down the street, or meeting someone for the first time.

Yup, as I said before, "I agree that everyone discriminates. It's human nature."

The thing is, we DO have a choice about including discriminatory assumptions in our hiring decisions.

If a particular trait has a direct bearing on the person's ability to do the job, then it is a perfectly valid consideration for hiring or not hiring.

But when you say, "I have no choice but to include these facts as I know them," it sounds like a rationalization for not hiring any more overweight workers because some in the past took more sick days than some statistical norm.

You have these "facts" about overweight people. Do you have similar facts about older workers? Gen Y? Other races or religions? The GLBT community? Who exactly IS the ideal candidate?

In an ideal world, every individual would be judged based on his or her unique qualifications.

In the real world, not so much.

Julie

I suppose that I must clarify the "I have no choice but to include these facts as I know them" statement...

What I meant by that was it becomes part of the subconscious, much like if you know it's going to rain today, you carry your umbrella because you know that if it rains, you'll get wet. If you don't like getting wet, then you've got your solution.

Or, based on your past experiences because you know how a person would react, you don't pull up to an intersection and flip somebody off in the car next to you because, based on your life experiences, you know that person may just get out of their car, bop you in the nose or maybe something worse.

So in my case, my experiences have conditioned me to think in certain ways and approach certain things in certain ways. Conditioning is all around us - it's on the radio, television, billboards, our interactions with people, in churches, etc.

That's all. I'm done.

Absolutely, John. We're all hard-wired to remember and apply our past experiences to our future decisions. We wouldn't survive as a species without it.

I just want to point out that if my boss had allowed size bias to color his hiring decision, we would not be having this discussion.

Namaste, Julie

John, not to pick on you or your statements, but I'm sure you must know that not all overweight people have medical issues related to their weight. So, a general statement and arguement:

I am overweight, I work out and am healthy. However, I have a bad back, it's been operated on in the past. My doctor, just prior to my back operation, put me on a diet pill and with my lifestyle change (healthy diet and exercise) I lost almost 100 pounds. My back got worse and subsequently needed to operated on.

I still have many problems with my back and take a bit of sick time each year due to it. While being thin would help my back, it won't cure it.

Thanks for listening.

I think that saying overweight miss more sick days - even if it was through John's hr expirience - is misleading. They miss more sick days compared to whom?

To thin people who are single? To parents in the workplace who have sick children? I've found that most places I've worked have expected more out of the single people - obese or otherwise - especially if the boss has kids. And I'm not sure how one could concern that a medical condition could be soley the result of obesity unless one is a physician.

Discrimination is discrimination no matter how you phrase it. So what if he'd said this:

"In my experiences, a very high percentage of black co-workers throughout my working life have had to miss several days of work per year because of health issues attributed to their race."

"In my experiences, a very high percentage of gay co-workers throughout my working life have had to miss several days of work per year because of health issues attributed to their sexual orientation."

"In my experiences, a very high percentage of female co-workers throughout my working life have had to miss several days of work per year because of health issues attributed to their children."

Yeah, doesn't sound very justifiable to me.

John, I find your comments to be a cop-out. You're rationalizing that it is okay to discriminate. What a shame. If we don't learn from our past, we are destined to repeat it and that goes for errors in judgement, too. If you are practicing this or any type of discrimination and you are in HR, you need to leave that post immediately!! You are not doing an employer any favors by basing your judgements of individuals not on the content of their character or their ability to do the job, but on sheer bias rooted in some very ignorant "research" you purport to use.

How would you have judged me? I had brain surgery 4 years ago, am profoundly deaf on one side, cannot swallow solid food and have a G-tube for nutrition, have an implant in my vocal cords so I can talk, had two bouts of viral meningitis and went code blue during the second bout. I died, but was brought back. I've also endured radiation for tumors on the other side of my head. Yet in spite of all of this, I am not prone to be more ill than those who have never been through this. I go to work every day and only miss an hour here or there so I can visit a doctor. This does not interfere with my ability to do my job. I've been in my profession for nearly 30 years and I am extremely good at what I do. Would you dismiss me because of what you may or not know about brain surgery, its effects and any other erroneous information or would you look at what skills and capabilities I bring to the party and include me? This can be said of anyone, no matter what their circumstances. If you can't look beyond the packaging to the gift that's inside, then you're in the wrong profession. Do you lack compassion and empathy or do you feel that those traits are not important when hiring an INDIVIDUAL. Yes, INDIVIDUAL.

Obviously your comment "That's all, I'm done" is your way of saying that you don't want to talk about this anymore. Is that because you know you're wrong? If you're embarassed by what others have said to you, you should be and you should also learn from it because it could make you better at what you do. There's still time to change your attitude and outlook and improve on your HR skills. Take a look in the mirror, is the person staring back at you perfect? Probably not, but obviously you have something of value because someone hired you. Find those same values in others instead of what you've been doing. It's wrong...just plain wrong. You'll sleep better at night knowing that you made someone feel good about themselves rather than judge them on arbitrary and misleading information.

Let's face it, the work place is becoming a beauty contest and similar to a beauty contest brains take a back seat. One would not have to do complicated statistical analysis to see that pay and position is decided by looks. I've worked under a lot of people that looked really good but had nothing when it came to skill, experience, or emotional IQ.