h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4373746.stm

So nice to see that the old "fat people spend too much time eating to be productive members of society" stereotype is alive and well. I don't think.

"The survey also found that one in 10 personnel officers would not want an overweight employee to meet a client. The same percentage believed they could sack a worker for being obese"

10% think you can sack someone just for being fat

I'm not terribly surprised by the fact that HR people discriminate against the overweight regardless of whether it impacts their ability to do the job. Saddened, but not surprised. People who aren't HR discriminate against the overweight all the time so why should personnel staff be any different?

Kelli, far too many people treat obesity as a moral failure of some sort, instead of a medical condition that involves a multitude of factors. I'm not surprised by these findings, either.

The thing is that no one actually wants to be fat. If it was simple to avoid and easy to undo, then you wouldn't see so many people getting heavier and heavier. The people who are so nasty to overweight individuals usually have metabolic set points that keep them thin without much effort. I know a lot of thin people who eat a lot, a LOT, more than I do. It isn't just about overeating. But they (some thin individuals) think they are morally superior somehow and have the right to make value judgments.

Ooh, yes, nothing like sitting down to eat your one bar of chocolate of the month, to hear some skinny chip-scoffing pea-brain say 'Ooh, should you be eating that?'

I tend to answer 'well, if my blood sugar falls to low I become homicidally deranged,' and then smile wolfishly at their throats...

Anyway. I am a wee bit fat at the moment (ha! just a wee bit. Pass the carrots) - have been fatter, have been a lot slimmer. Nevertheless I can still crouch down to get at the very bottom shelves at work, and reach up, and get on and off kick-stools, and carry big piles of books around. A younger skinnier person I know (at another library, not current employer) cannot bend over comfortably (short hamstrings, apparently) and cannot carry more than two hardbacks at once. On what planet would I be more sackable than him? On WHAT DAMN PLANET? And yet, I'm the one with a big backside and apparently no moral fibre. I have tons of moral fibre. And I can do my job. So this is making me all heated...

I hereby state my unshakable belief that all HR/personnel staff have their common sense glands removed with a blunt teaspoon in an unspeakable rite in a secret temple entered via the stationary cupboard as part of their inductions.

I'm overweight - half of it is down to a medical condition and half of it is laziness. It bloody well annoys me when the skinny girl at work moans that she's put on three pounds because she gorged herself over the weekend. Well missy, try putting on three STONE in three months

Even though I'm overweight and fall into the 'obese' category I'm still quite fit. I'd like to see a lot of the skinny people I know run full pelt over uneven ground in a forest, or sit bolt upright from lying down without using arms or other leverage.

My waistline fluctuates at an alarming rate, always has done. It's not unusual for me to go from a 30 inch waist to a 34 inside a couple of weeks.

So *all* the holes on my belts get worn out, and my trousers in my wardrobe are arranged in size.

Currently at a 40 inch waist, but I have reasonably good posture so it doesn't show that much... need to lose enough weight to fit into my breastplate at the LARP event next May.

Well, you've got a target then.

That is my current motivation. I have a closet filled with perfectly good clothes I can't fit into. And I would rather spend the money I have on other things than buying clothes.

My thyroid makes my weight extremely screwy. One minute I think 'ooh, I'm losing weight, yey!', next minute it's back on

I must say, all the charging up and down six flights of stairs at work is definitely having an effect on the middle wobble. Yes, six, two up to the library, one up to the offices, and three in the stacks. And up and down I have been cantering with arms full of collapsing books.

Of course, some personnel officers would deny me the opportunity to get more fit and healthy in the first place...

Why am I letting this whole subject still irritate me?

*goes off to eat prawn crackers and drink beer*

Hi I don't want to believe that this is true, but it looks as if I'll have to It reminded me of a film with Marianne Sägebrecht ( Out of Rosenheim, The war of the Roses, Rosalie goes shopping) I've watched several years ago, it's about her getting sacked as a post(wo)man because she is obese. I always thought it was just a film, only to find out that it's obviously the sad truth
I thought it was common knowledge now that weight is a matter of how your metabolism works, and not a choice. I've always been slim, sometimes even thin, but not by choice. My sister isn't slim, although she doesn't eat more than I do, so I can't see why she should be considered to lack self disciplin, infact, she has far more than I have, because I know I'd never be able to make a diet and change the way I eat