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.

Her personality is far more of an issue than her size. In fact if you had said she was immature had emotional outbursts and not a team player, I think most people would have agreed with you that she'd be unsuitable for the role.
I use always the term friend for people I actually like and want to spent time with. Then again I don't follow anyone on social media, so maybe the meaning of 'friend' now has a new meaning in modern parlance🤷‍♀️.

I'm a size 16 and I've worked a few places where I couldn't have been much bigger and still been able to do the role, not fitness related but size related. There was a small shop I worked in where I only just fitted behind the counter. There was another place which was a really small Victorian bookshop with a store room the size of someone's downsize cloakroom. There's loads of very old buildings which are tiny and couldn't be easily expanded.
This is why we really can't let obesity become a disability. If someone is too big to work somewhere, it really isn't fair that they would be able to sue a small business who couldn't make their premises bigger. They would end up going out of business.

Oh and I went for an interview somewhere where I couldn't be offered the position due to my height! I am 5'2 and couldn't reach the coffee shelves!

Sounds to me like you really dislike her and are relishing her getting a no.

@WhateverMate this is against the Equality Act for a paid role, does it being a volunteer post make it okay?
Disabled people can expect to have reasonable adjustments made if there are parts of the job they cannot manage.

Is that a typo?! 57 stone is huge!!

That’s not entirely true. If being disabled prevents you from doing core parts of role you can’t do it. Reasonable adjustments must be considered for protected characteristics. Being fat isn’t protected. Reorganising an entire charity base to accommodate someone who doesn’t fit not reasonable.

Volunteers are not protected in the same way as there is no contract of employment.

However, we make reasonable adjustments as and where we can like most decent organisations would.

But with those reasonable adjustments in place, the volunteer would still need to do everything the role requires in order to be considered for it.

They definitely can be picky. All the places round me I've tried to volunteer are always fully staffed.

crikey😶💨
ya cant give it away🤷‍♀️

It depends on what sort of thing you want to volunteer for.

Some places are way more enjoyable/fun to volunteer at than others.

I manage a team of volunteers at a museum and we really are spoilt for choice. Then again we look after our volunteers well and take them on 2 coach outings a year, throw them a Christmas party and a Summer cream tea evening to show our appreciation.

We really couldn't manage without them but we do have to be fairly selective, due to the time and costs incurred with recruitment and training etc.

I also manage volunteers and I think you can find a role for people who want to give up their time and help. It just might not be as big a role as your main volunteers or it might just look different.

I think it would be wrong to discriminate against her based on your perception of what she can/ cannot do. You could take on a skinny volunteer who has hidden health issues who couldn't manage the role but you'd still give them the chance to try it out. Why shouldn't your friend get the same opportunity. Then she can decide if its for her or not. If there's certain things she can't do, then it's up to her and whoever is coordinating to find roles to fill her time usefully just as you would with anyone else with a health condition. I think that ruling her out before she's even had a chance doesn't say much for you as a friend tbvh.

if she was nice would you take her on?

Mobility wise you’ll only have a clear idea of the difficulties she faces on a trail shift.

How do you know she is obese? Obese is defined by a persons height and weight.
You really mean fat don't you?
you are being judgemental and are stereotyping this woman.
Really out of order.

So if you were being totally honest would be able to say 'look I could come up with an excuse about your weight to cover the fact I don't want you to do the job but I will be totally honest and just tell you to your face" if you can't say this then stop making excuses and own the fact you are discriminating

People have very sweet ideas about what "reasonable adjustments" and "discrimination" mean.

Reasonable adjustments are things the employer can reasonably do to enable an employee to fulfil the role as well as a fully-able worker. They don't include radically changing the job spec, restructuring the workplace or moving to more accessible premises.

Discrimination means treating an employee worse than other people doing the same or equivalent job, where that employee has one of the nine protected characteristics.

Employers are not playgroup leaders, and this is not about ensuring everybody gets a go on all the rides. Workers have to be able to do the job they were hired to do.

There is no actual proof the employee can't do the job just someone making something up

OP didn't say she didn't like her friend, she said she thought friend was too fat to be able to do the job. Duoh!

Don't know why honesty shouldn't be the best policy here. Just tell her she's too fat for this job because of the physical requirements.

Most fat people know they're fat and only a minority would make a fuss when told the facts about the job.

Yes, @WandaWonder, I was trying to inform the multiple respondents wittering on about OP's organisation having to make 'adjustments' and darkly warning of 'discrimination'.

Thank you for the insights🙏
I was about to say I could never bring myself to work for free and then I remembered that I do . . . I volunteer as a secretary on a committee and have done so for over a decade.