Colleague bringing scales to office - weighing others.

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I work in an office with around 20 other people. A colleague has started bringing in scales so that he and others can weigh themselves in front of others.

Everyone stands in a circle around the scales and watches while they take it in turns to weigh themselves.

So far I have managed to avoid being asked to weigh myself in front of the others, perhaps because I am overweight.

Management don't seem bothered and are even joining in with the weighing.

Not really sure why posting, just wanted to hear what others think.

Don’t be the fun police.

They haven’t asked you directly. They’ve already sussed your vibe.

the people standing in a circle taking turns to weight themselves are fun.

paaaaaaaarrrtyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

Great, sounds like a team building health kick. Good stuff

I was just coming on to say I've never been in an environment where women banged on about their diets, and then remembered that I've spent the vast majority of my working life working with men.

I work in a male dominated industry and (thankfully) its not a topic of conversation that comes up very often. In fact I think if anyone brought in some scales and got them out in the middle of the workspace, at least 1 person would ask wtf they were doing!!

I’ve never heard of this, but weird but if that’s what people want..
I think that’s best in a different room, not the main office as it could trigger people with eating disorders.

if they have to, then it should be for those that wish to and no one is asked to join, but welcome to if they want to.

it's a bit weird and it should be done in a room at break/lunch. probably triggering for some but you can't shield everyone from everything. i wouldn't join in personally. i've had un-diagnosed restrictive eating disorder ("severely underweight" bmi 15.8). i still struggle with my weight but i can't get angry about people who do want to weigh themselves.

I think it’s utterly bizarre.
they can join slimming world or crate their own group outside of work!

You’re sensitive about it because you’re overweight and they’re slim. If this were about, say, male pattern hair loss you wouldn’t bother about it. If they’re not bothering you, leave them to it and get on with your job.

I would be sensitive about it as I have had an eating disorder and am not really fully recovered from the thoughts. I do not think the work place is an appropriate environment for people to be confronted with weighing scales or having to bat off "oh you don't need to worry, you're super slim" comments.
I accept I have to learnt to live in the world around me, but weighing scales and the associated chatter should not be in the office.

This used to happen in an office I worked in too - actually I joined them as it was a great motivator to be more healthy!

My workplaces are generally more women than men - and weight loss has never been a topic of conversation.

I'm currently bmi 20 and this is the highest my bmi has been for several years. I would absolutely hate this.

This thread is FULL of people with current/past eating disorders explaining how damaging this is - unsurprising given the prevalence of EDs among women -
and then a load of selfish, callous people essentially telling us to "suck it up, snowflake".

Awful. I wonder what other things you think people are 'oversensitive' about.

I actually think there is a huge gulf between the women for whom this is a fun (for them, tedious for others) topic of conversation, and those of us who suffer with full on eating disorders, for whom it's often a fairly private hell.

My MIL is one of those women who has always been mildly, never very, overweight. She and her sister and their friends (all somewhat overweight) discuss dieting and calories etc constantly, and yet never really lose much weight.

She's known me for nearly 20 years and has seen me severely anorexic etc in that time, and yet it doesn't stop her treating it as a 'fun' chat topic, or saying she's couldn't possibly have cake because she ate lunch, or moaning about gaining a few pounds.

Now that I'm visibly a normal weight I find women include me in this 'fun' chat. It's excruciating. When I was very thin they mostly didn't, except for the occasional woman who would just be absolutely obsessed with praising and admiring my thinness. (Probably in recovery themselves)

This thread is really illuminating and depressing in terms of how little understanding or empathy there is around EDs still.

You what?!

What for? This is nearly as weird as the threads about posters who go up the stairs on all fours.

That depends on whether you think weighing yourself has much to do with health!

If office workers want to improve their health and encourage their colleagues to do the same, weighing themselves in front of each other isn’t going to tell them much about their health.

They’d be much better off keeping a tally chart of:

-Hours of exercise completed per week
-Portions of fruits and vegetables eaten per day
-Number of hours of sleep each night.

A bit of friendly competition around those targets (for those who are interested) might be more useful than monitoring body weight. (Especially as weight in and of itself doesn’t necessarily mean much. Body fat % is a much more useful measure, but a lot more difficult to measure!)

Honestly I’ve worked in male dominated, female dominated and pretty mixed environments, and I have never heard of this. Batshittery. Or boredom I guess, but still batshit.

I cannot understand how people think this is normal and ok in a place of work?! Honestly, working from home makes me realise how weird some workplaces are 🤣 also, there is overwhelming evidence all around us that there is harm in this type of activity.

Just say "no thanks" if they ask you.

I don't object to the idea of sort of slimming club or fitness drive in the office for people who have volunteered to take part but they should definitely be doing in in a private room.

Why is it more healthy? I find it hard to imagine any professional workplace actually allowing this to happen.

We have had finance fat clubs at loads of places , it’s not compulsory and I think you’re being over sensitive

We're a large family and living far apart, and we did something similar a few years ago : we weighed ourselves at home and then shared our weight with eachother and discussed it once a week. We all "needed" to lose a few pounds. A few family members opted out, others quit after a month or so. It was motivational not to go into heavy dieting but just watching what you eat, snacks etc. you know. It was fun while it lasted 😊

We do a little weight loss club in my office. Join in or don’t. We all pay £1 a week & at the end of the month the biggest loser gets half the money & the other half goes to charity

Do people say 'no thanks'? ... I'd do this