Would you hire someone visibly anorexic?

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I’m looking for honest (even if brutal) answers.

And this is from personal experience, or are you just generalising ?

@Mrttyl While this seems 'kind' on the surface it does the employee no favours.
No job is 'safe'. The company could go bust, have re-orgs, redundancies etc and the protected person will find themselves unemployable. Not only that losing their job might put them in an even worse mental state that's hard to recover from.
Far better to assist them in getting well, benefitting both parties long-term but few are up to the challenge.

It is, but how is she going to prove that she didn't get the job because of her anorexia? It would be next to impossible.

Probably not because I have a close friend with it and she is in and out of hospital, has days even weeks off of work , goes through very bad periods of depression etc. I appreciate not everybody is the sane but it would definitely make me think hard about whether to employ someone with anorexia.

I wouldn't, I'm afraid. Have known quite a few severely anorexic women and they were without exception nightmares to be around - neurotic, highly strung, short-tempered and paranoid, as I guess you would be. Not to mention the obvious physical fragility is terrifying. I sympathise, but I would not want to work with someone with anorexia, in the same way that I wouldn't knowingly hire someone with an obvious alcohol or drug addiction.

An important reminder right there

What some forget in the usual rush to fling around "discrimination!!!" is that while disability may be no bar to being considered for a role, it doesn't carry an entitlement to be appointed either

It's a complex area, but while some employers undoubtably do break the law the recruitment process involves balancing all factors, and sometimes the answer has to be no for everyone's sake - including, potentially, that of the applicant

They could have crones or another illness, or be recovering from one, so it’s hard to know. Can understand how, as a small business, you would query whether they are physically or mentally healthy enough, but most contracts have a probationary period, don’t they?

If you felt she was the best candidate for the role and only have qualms over her extreme thinness (or what this might mean), you could still offer a trial. If she is unable to do the job you can let her go at the end of the probation period?

How do you decide that someone is 'visibly anorexic'?

She could be naturally thin for all you know or she could have had an illness of some kind that affected her appetite and appearance for a while.

I wouldn't, no. I can tell the difference between very very thin and anorexic. Although I suppose the physical path to anorexic passes through very thin, it's only the psychologic journey from very thin to anorexic that's hidden. At interview anyway, You'd know quickly enough if you worked with them.

I used to be very thin til I was mid-40s and people used to corner me and tell me how bad it was to be anorexic. I wasn't, I just had such a high metabolism I could eat anything without putting on weight, and I had loads of energy.

It's really not safe to assume someone really thin is anorexic, and it is discriminatory to refuse them a job on those highly speculative grounds.

I don’t think I would. I’m sorry to say that I would not hire anyone with a current serious mental health problem .

I'd look at the full picture. Firstly (obviously) is the person right for the job and the company? Are they currently in stable employment? I think if the person (in this case you) ticks all the boxes and has good references, it wouldn't make a difference.

Are you getting help OP?

I have anorexia although in recovery for over a decade.

If your daughter is extremely underweight I would take her to the doctor. She might have another illness.

You'd be guilty of breaking the law in that case - it is discrimination under the equality act.

Some of the opinions expressed and the ignorant generalisations being made about disability perfectly demonstrate why disabled people struggle to find and retain suitable employment, and remain among the lower paid. Equality Act or not, attitudes haven’t moved forward much in 50 years if this thread is anything to go by.

No, she wouldn't necessarily.

Small businesses aren't expected to make the same concessions as large businesses for a whole variety of reasons.

https://www.acas.org.uk/employer-decision-protected-characteristic/objective-justification

https://www.acas.org.uk/disability-discrimination/types-of-disability-discrimination

Both those links have some useful examples.

Anorexia is a mental illness. Just because she's underweight doesn't mean she's anorexic. Equally, even if she is it doesn't mean she can't do her job well. She might be recovered and managing her illness. Lots of people with anorexia will stay underweight but manage their illness day to day, doesn't make them incapacitated.

No but then I’m a former anorexic and have a relative who died because of it so I find it really triggering and quite traumatic to see

To answer though I probably wouldn't for my own business because they would trigger me.

But I have two best friends I met at inpatient treatment programs and one is a social worker who now manages group homes.

The other is a technology genius who is VP for a huge company. The one who is VP has relapsed majority. I don't know how she manages still. She runs for 2 hours in the morning and holds down a high pressure job. She also has three kids as a single mom. She's an amazing employee.

Would be required to TRY to make reasonable adjustments..Business simply cannot accommodate everyone.

A lot of personal experience on both sides of the table.

As a business owner (multiple businesses) and consultant for businesses, I would say for every one person who finds themself in a job and grows as a person, 10 (being generous) will:

• not turn up for work on regular occasions
• cry regularly at work
• Have episodes in which they behave in detrimental ways to the business
• Pick arguments with colleagues
• Claim their (ordinary) responsibilitIes are “unfair”
• Take their problems out on their employer
• Falsely accuse colleagues/bosses
• Quit without warning (and more often than not show up a few days or weeks later claiming that they need to be taken back and it would be unfair not to)
• Get regularly sick
• Turn up hungover or still drunk

Honestly I’d challenge anyone with actual mental health problems to swear that they were actually fully functioning at their job during bad periods. If your mental health is truly bad it’s just not possible to be great at your job - and on the odd occasion someone is they inevitably burn themselves out and crash in the end.

like I said I’ve been on both sides so this isn’t some dig at people with mental health conditions. And they can be worked with but people always ignore the impact it haves on managers and owners.

How can we expect one or two people to handle a whole team’s mental health problems perfectly, cover missed shifts without complaint and fund the hours missed and just basically deal with what is essentially someone else’s monkeys someone else’s circus whilst also trying to do their own job?

Many years ago I had regular dealings with a recovering anorexic - when she was struggling with it, her hair and skin showed it - I'm not sure if it was related, but she could do one part of her job twice as fast as a machine.
I wouldn't hesitate to hire her as part of a wider team because she might only work nine or ten months of the year, but deliver fifteen months output in that time.

Anorexia nervosa is a serious mental illness, and one with the worst outcomes for sufferers, I believe. I work with an anorexic woman and the whole team worry for her, there are rules that we cannot talk about food in meetings, we are discouraged from birthday cakes, team lunches etc for fear of making her uncomfortable, it’s very trying for everyone and frankly it’s exhausting. So I personally would be extremely wary.

You obviously haven’t read job applications. At least half of the applicants for any post are barely capable of spelling their own names. People apply with the wrong qualifications, no relevant experience, or live on a different continent and have no hope of getting a visa.

In answer to your question, OP, I’m not sure. It all boils down to perceived risk. If two candidates perform similarly well, I imagine most employers would be more likely to employ the one who looked like they would need less time off for illness. I’m not saying it’s right, and I’m not saying looking well reflects someone’s ability to perform better, but I think that’s how a lot of employers would think.

Exactly - lots of people are throwing around the Equality Act without really understanding what it means.

Businesses, especially small businesses are expected to try and make reasonable adjustments but the law recognises that it's not always possible, practical or safe to do so, and makes allowances for that.

If someone's disability means them doing a particular job would be dangerous, or unsafe, or require permanent support, then businesses are allowed to say "no". Lots of people don't seem to realise that.