friend too obese for volunteer role....how to explain not suitable....!

[earsup]

A volunteer role has popped up at our local fabric recycle centre, people and shops donate rolls and bits, we sort it out and price it up and put on shelves. not a lot of space between shelves and lots of crawling around on floor to retrieve bits and bending. Obese ...sort of friend wants to join us, she is very thick skinned and quite self entitled, I was just thinking of saying that you need to be quite agile for the role and say no more....She wouldn't be able to get between the shelves and wouldn't be able to bend down etc.

It is a volunteer role, she isn't getting paid, everyone has something to offer. If she can't do the full physical side of the role get her doing something else she can do and find another person for the more physical side. Teamwork.

No offence, OP, but I cannot imagine that sorting, stocking and reaching for fabric requires "agility". Let her try it out for herself and see if it works.

I’ve yet I find a voluntary organisation that can afford to turn away willing helpers!
Yes, there may be risk/health and safety concerns but they could also be discrimination/equality issues. Perhaps there is a need to rethink the way you work in terms of whether everyone needs to do absolutely everything. At the very least, perhaps a trial shift or two might be the way to go. In terms of some of the behavioural issues you mention, perhaps welcoming and accepting this woman as part of the team will actually help those.

It is discriminatory to use her weight as a reason. She will quickly see for herself whether or not she is capable of performing the roll. I would warn her about the need for agility in advance as PPs said but I would not comment on her weight and I would look at why I felt weight was important in this instance. Plenty of larger people are perfectly agile, plenty of older people are perfectly agile. I am 30 and slim, I have trouble with agility.

No one else is getting paid either so its a bit of a pisser of they do all the grunt work while she just does the nice bits. Team work indeed.

I think a trial shift is a great idea.

Until very recently I was obese (I'm not just not quite) and I'm very agile - I can crawl on the floor, climb ladders, squeeze between things.

If she can't do those things, it's probably exacerbated by her obesity but don't tar all obese people with the same brush.

I'd explain the details of the job role to her and offer to show her around/ trial shift.

Don’t offer the role to her. If she’s rude and abrasive you run the risk of alienating or losing your existing volunteer team. Don’t upset the good balance by bringing in someone that you know isn’t polite or kind towards others.

Ah so you dont want to give her the role- or a fair chance of getting it - and you're hoping her weight would prove enough of an excuse?

This is quite identifying.

Honestly, some people on this thread really don't understand volunteering and all the work that goes to enrolling, training and looking after volunteers. For this reason, recruiters need to be selective.

It's a volunteer role, not Bob-A-Job week!

Turning this on this head - why does your 'friend' feel entitled to the role?
I'm sure you'll have many applicants. Invite them all and pick the best.
You don't owe her the role just because she knows you.

Also surely you have some sort of recruitment process?
She just has to follow it like everyone else. Knowing you is irrelevant

You clearly just don't like her OP and now you're going to say the role is not available? Doesn't sound very fair.

Don’t. However you word it based on what you have said about her personality she’s going to come back at you.

Let her apply and go for a trial like everyone else. She won’t get the position. Also to really help yourself opt of our decision making where she’s concerned. It’s a conflict.

Let her do the trial shift and she how she gets in. Good on her on wanting to try something new. If she doesn’t get out much, she’ll probably be out if her comfort zone.

if she doesn’t get it, encourage her to try a volunteer role somewhere else, charity shop for example.

That isn’t reasonable.

That isn’t reasonable.

Who says she gets to do the "nice" bits. There could be plenty of "grunt" work available that she is physically capable of contributing to meaning she should not be ruled out immediately due to size if she can offer something else.

When you have a team with diverse capabilities that is exactly what team work is.

I agree with you.

Unfortunately, one team member not able to carry out aspects of the role means other team members have to carry out this role.
Perhaps the other team members don't want to be the ones to crawl around and do all of the physical jobs whilst one team member is not able.

This is the best solution IMO.

You'd be very shocked at what goes on behind the scenes of shelf fillers, loading and unloading lorries etc.

No don’t employ her - everyone else will have to pick up her work.
I volunteer and several staff have the sit on your behind jobs - leaving all the lifting and shifting stuff to the rest. When it should really be shared.

Why do so many people assume every larger person wants to lose weight? Not all do.