for thinking everyone at work should not have to pick up the slack because a colleague is too overweight to do her share?

It is isn't it.

There will always be outliers and exceptions but I will say that if you’d asked me at age 23 why I had gained weight between 19 and 23 I’d have said something like “loves cakes” too and refuted the idea it was anything deeper . I did lose that weight and keep it off for over a decade but still had binges during that period, the walking 15k steps + and gym helped me maintain weight so when I became inactive in my thirties it started to show.

Now I’m a lot more insightful and I can see that my recent weight gain (in my 30s) that began just before the pandemic was linked to disordered eating stemming from emotional issues. Losing the 3 stone over the past few years as a relatively short person has not just been about willpower, but examining my emotional and mental health.

So even a lot of people who claim it’s nothing more than loving food just haven’t looked deeply enough within themselves or aren’t ready to admit their deep rooted issues.

Could your colleague be redeployed on medical grounds into a role that doesn't require any heavy lifting and moving things? Your employer could then recruit to her vacant post.

The reasonable adjustments made here are "we will reassign the physical elements of your job, which are only a small part of the job, amongst your colleagues" just as it might well be for COPD or limb damage...

How on earth can you possibly know that this woman is ‘refusing’ to take steps to help herself or that she is ‘choosing’ to harm herself? You don’t know what she is or isn’t doing. The self deprecating jokes about how much she eats doesn’t mean she isn’t trying to improve things. But if most other morbidly obese people are anything to go by, she’d be fighting a losing battle. She probably needs medical intervention. Who knows whether or not she’s on a waiting list? You certainly don’t. I honestly can’t believe, in this day and age, people still believe that someone who has reached the point of being morbidly obese is seen as choosing to harm themselves. Your ignorance is staggering.

It’s a hard one, but I think it comes down to management rather than the individual. These things happen similarly if someone has an accident or develops a condition.

At my workplace it got really out of hand with 2/4 in my team being unable to physically do the job. Management brought in support for them and it reduced the burden on the two of us because it was unfair and breeding resentment as we didn’t have the time to get our other tasks done, but they were finished really quickly as they hadn’t had to do the physical stuff!

Yip,reported but yet it still stands

Say it was someone who smoked so much that they were unable to lift stuff because of wheezing, being out of breath, etc... Would people make allowances here (or in the workplace) for that addiction? 🤔 (used to be a heavy smoker myself, so aware of the effects).

They'd be pulled in for a meeting and it would be addressed during performance reviews. In the case of COPD, or the permanent limb damage, I've known people to be managed out, or agree to leave. If there can't be reasonable adjustments made. The reasonable adjustments seem to have been put onto the other staff members and that should be group addressed.

No it's you that can't grasp it. I can explain it to you, but I can't understand it for you.

She IS doing HER job. Her tasks assigned by management. It's up to management to decide how the work is assigned not the OP

I think its you that clearly cant grasp it. OP is doing her colleagues work as she is too fat!! it has everything to do with her weight! Its not about not coping its about taking on her fat colleagues share because she cant do her job properly.

Having been extremely overweight myself, I find this very unfair! Why should others have to shoulder more of the work because the colleague has put on weight (just like me, I overate, no real medical issues, I was just addicted to food/eating)? The colleague has said she overeats, no other reason. As she’s said this, the OP can only assume she’s telling the truth. It isn’t fair on others that someone who was employed on a level playing field has put them in this position.

Her balance will be dodgy, mine was, I used to fall over because if I lost my balance, I couldn’t stop myself falling/save myself, so whilst being overweight doesn’t stop you being able to lift something heavy, it is tricky to then maintain balance, particularly if steps or the use of a ladder are involved.

they may have information which the OP does not have access to.

How many other ways can it be explained to you?

it's not about the other colleagues weight/size!

It's up to management to allocate the tasks, it's up to them who does x task. It's NOT up to OP to decide all colleagues must do the same amount of every task.

if she's not happy with the amount if x task she is assigned & can't cope she needs to discuss that with them, maybe they can tell her she needs to get fitter to cope as she seems to think it's reasonable to tell her colleague that.

Really whether you are reasonable to feel resentful depends on the direct impact on you and your colleagues from the reassignment of tasks, and whether your co-worker has been allocated some of the non-physical tasks that you were doing previously, so that everyone still does a fair share of work.
If the extra physical labour has been re-assigned evenly across a team of five so everyone does a little bit extra every day, and it isn't an H&S issue, I'd just drop it. You may stay there up to retirement and they may make similar accommodations for you as you age, which would be pragmatic and allow you to carry on working.
I think you need to decide what you would want to achieve by giving this any more head-space. There are various things you can ask management to consider, but you need to be clear what you're asking them to do, or they'll just ignore the whole thing and hope it goes away.

Its basically poor management. The manager/HR do not want to tackle this sensitive situation with her. Its not on and they need to grow a backbone. I think you all need to call a meeting with hr and complain as one united

well if they are doing it out of the (ha) kindness of their hearts and not because someone with the authority to do so has told them to, why aren't they taking it to management or HR?

Of course it matters why. Being fat isn't a disability. Her colleague needs to put down her fork and do her fair share. Management CANT assign her a task as shes too fat and therefor she cant do her job and should be sacked.

Of all the stuff that is deleted on MN it continues to astound me that shit like this is left to stand. OP won't be back anyway but this thread should definitely go.

That was predictable. No surprise with the goady username. Still the fat bashing continues, some people are vile. Some just lack the ability to understand basic things, like management being in charge- if you don't like it, work fo yourself. Or elsewhere.

OP, if you and your colleagues all work under the same job description, I would investigate the possibility of workplace discrimination if the job description is not being applied equally and fairly, and any of you can demonstrate a protected characteristic such as age…

This is none of your business. If your colleagues manager felt she was unable to fulfil her role then she would need to performance manage that. Not you. If your JD states that you have to do this task then you have to do it as assigned. Regardless of frequency. If your manager has their reasons for not addressing this with your colleague. They may prefer she does other work than physical lifting, then there’s nothing you can or should do about it. And that includes bitching with other colleagues trying to gather support for your opinion.

It does not matter why. It's up to management who is given each task. 🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️🙇🏻‍♀️.

If any other colleague with a medical condition which affected their work was not taking available steps to improve, control or mitigate their condition, insofar as it affected their ability to do their work or impacted on their colleagues’ workload, do you think that would be okay? If a colleague with diabetes refused to take their insulin and other people had to deal with the consequences, or a colleague with bipolar didn’t feel they liked their antipsychotics and had violent outbursts, would that be okay? Why is it okay for somebody to be fat, to choose to harm themselves, to joke about it, and for other people to have to not mention the affect it has on them?