Would you hire someone visibly anorexic?

[Ncncncncc]

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

We are not talking about visibly under weight, we are discussing visibly anorexic. I understand you may not have ever seen it, and are as such confused, but the op is not and neither am I.

@Janetime I'm not confused thanks for the concern. I have worked in settings with anorexic patients, I have also had a family member with undiagnosed crohns being told she had IBS while she lost 5 stone and her menstruation stopped and her GP refused to believe she wasn't anorexic until she collapsed and was taken to a&e. I've also worked with long term substance misusers who have done so much damage to their bodies that even once sober they just cannot maintain weight, they are capable of working. My aunt after prolonged chemo and cancer treatment took nearly 3 years to get back to anything approaching healthy looking. You can't judge solely on appearance.

Never came across that situation. Generally, if you take office work as an example, if you have say six employees, including the disabled person, it should be possible to take out and reassign the more physical aspects of that one job, and swap in desk based duties taken from staff across the board so that the work is evenly distributed. It does require looking at everyone’s duties in the first instance to see if it’s reasonable and doable.

If the employer genuinely couldn’t make up another full time post and offered a modified part time post instead, then l think they’ve fulfilled their obligation for reasonable adjustment as far as possible. The employee wouldn’t be obliged to accept it, but l don’t think it would be seen as discriminatory if the employer had made the effort to explore all the options available. Especially if unemployment was the alternative.

Equally even if it is anorexia, a woman I was at uni with clearly struggled with eating disorders and was open about it, now in her 40s she looks very unwell, holds down a full-time job though

Thank you so much for responding - that's what I assumed would be the case but I wasn't 100% sure :)

@allypally33 to be completely honest I don’t care about the company or her that much. I don’t want to be nasty but it is up to her and the people who love her to decide how to deal with it. I have stuff to worry about with a member of my own family and don’t know how to help them, so I am not going to wade into this one.

She is 5'6" and weighs 6st 4lbs- yep she looks anorexic.
Also where was the imaginary discrimination on the thread- people were being very open about the fact they would discriminate so puzzled about the point you were trying to make?

I think you're misunderstanding. I wasn't saying that it's yours, or anybody's job to assist the employee personally.
Rather, letting them carry on in their role isn't a kindness. It's just kicking the can down the road.
A good manager in your case would give them sick leave to recover, refer to occupational health etc or if they can't do the role at a high level temporarily change the workings. Officially.

Surely a setup that 'kind of works' must be impacting on other employees too, who have to do her work as well as theirs.

She has been to the doctor, Thanks though, it definitely is always good to check

I think there are some roles where it would be unethical either for the person with anorexia (e.g. very physical work) or for other vulnerable people (e.g. working in ED services or MH) or both (e.g. dancer/model). It may not matter if the person had anorexia or was seriously underweight for other reasons. I think these roles aside if you were the best candidate for the job I hope you would be given a chance. Good luck with your job hunt and your recovery OP.

Sadly, anorexia is one of the MH disorders that is visible. I have known several people with it (and have since died too). One applied to volunteer for a MH charity that focuses on gardening. They said no, as she was so painfully thin (and wearing jumpers/coats in winter) that they were worried about the very physical nature of the role.

Saying that, someone can be very thin and it not be MH related at all. Someone interviewing you wont know the difference. It would be seeing Occupational Health that it would come up.

I hope you are surrounded by love and support, and find a job you would like to do.

XenoBitch "They said no, as she was so painfully thin (and wearing jumpers/coats in winter)"

There's nothing noteworthy about wearing jumpers/coats in winter.

Sorry, I saw my mistake and can't change it.

I meant in the summer!

Yes, if I worked for a large company or the government. No, if I worked for a small company or myself and the cost of covering someone's long-term absence from work would be punitive.

If someone is massively underweight they are either anorexic or equally / more severely ill with another illness. I have known two people who lived for a long time with anorexia (painfully, skeletally thin), but they were both off work a lot. Sadly both died before their early fifties.

Before their early 50’s is terrifying and so sad.

I’m sorry about your friends. I hope I can beat this.

@Ncncncncc

Are you getting the support you need from your GP and the specialist services in your area? I hope so.

BEAT does very good work, if you can use some extra help.

https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-information-and-support/get-help-for-myself/i-need-support-now/helplines/

I hope you can get some help that works for you with this. It's no way to live. Take care xx

Yes, wishing you well, OP. I hope you can find a way through.

There's no such thing as visibility anorexic- plenty other heath conditions might present that way.

Not really. It's incredibly obvious.

depends whether or not the person is the best candidate for the role

Actually I stand corrected and apologise for that

You can absolutely beat it. I promise you. 🌷

Some days it will be really really hard, but you can chose to recover.

Some days will be really really easy and weeks, months, even years will go by where you barely notice it within you.

Then it might get hard again. Really hard. Horrifically hard. And you once again will choose to recover. Minute by minute. Hour by hour. Until the years pass again.

It's a constant decision. You have to keep choosing you.