Would you hire someone visibly anorexic?

[Ncncncncc]

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

Sorry to hear, OP. Hope you get the job. My anorexic DD has just got a part-time job 12 weeks after leave an inpatient unit and even being offered it has been great for her mental health. Getting a job has been a turning point for her friend who was a fellow patient too. Hang on in there. You deserve to recover and love your best life.

One of the others on my dd's treatment programme is a doctor. People with EDs are very varied. OP - please don't let your ED stop you applying for jobs. But also, please get support if you can x

If they could do the job, yes. If they couldn't, no.

We stayed at an all inclusive hotel in Majorca. My sister got her food and sat down and said there's an anorexic girl getting food. She did look painfully fun. But my cousin had lupus and lost a lot of weight before she died. Some might have assumed she was anorexic but she wasn't. Because of her illness she didn't have much appetite. The little she did eat she struggled to keep down.

I was like this after glandular fever as well. I was living alone and survived on frozen juice. And then shortly after there was an epidemic of very nasty flu which I caught and basically spent two weeks barely conscious, again surviving on only juice for the brief periods I was awake. I looked skeletal by the end of it!

You're making alot of assumptions about how someone's suspected (becuase you don't know they have anorexic nervosa) anorexia affects them.

And what I'm saying is that alot of people, men especially, would make those same assumptions about you being a woman and especially a mother. But you wouldn't consider it appropriate to say that a woman couldn't handle a job becuase of her cycle or becuase of the demands of motherhood or she might need maternity leave or she might need sick days when her kids are ill.

I can't see how one would tell.

I was ill once, lost tons of weight and it took years to put it back on. Everyone thought I was anorexic, my kids refused to go swimming with me as they said it was embarrassing. You can't tell by looking at someone.

If I thought they were competent I would hire them over other people to try to, I don’t know, help them out, give them a safe space and good environment etc. People with Ed need all the positivity they can in their life. If you think they’ll be good definitely give them the benefit of the doubt

To the people who say it might just be that they’re slight etc, there was a girl in my class who was anorexic. Her bones nearly touched off each other. She became anorexic after a tough time at home. I don’t think there’s many people who are that slight

Surely it can only be proven as discrimination if the person with the illness/disability is very obviously the stronger candidate through experience or training? I was recently unsuccessful at an interview- should I blame discrimination or just accept that I wasn't as strong as the candidate who got it? I'm not sure you can ever get to the bottom of why you are unsuccessful at an interview especially if it has many applicants.

Personally I wouldn't discriminate if they were otherwise best fit but that is when the 'subject to references' plays a part. If they have a high sickness record it will be new information to work with.

to do what?

@Ncncncncc Are you getting to interview stage and think that they aren’t hiring you because of your anorexia?
Have you asked for any feedback? If so what are their reasons for not hiring you?
I would honestly say that if people are not willing to take you on because of your anorexia they aren’t worth your energy.
As someone up thread said. Go with larger employees who are disability confident.
I hope you find something soon x

I don't think I could. Many years ago, I worked with a young anorexic woman. She was really unwell, and it was hugely upsetting for everyone watching her get thinner and sicker. As she got more ill, she had more and more time off work and eventually just didn't come back.

She didn't talk to any of us about what was going on with her, made it clear it was off limits. It was so difficult to watch her get more and more ill and not be able to say or do anything to support her. We had to pretend like it wasn't happening. When she was at her most ill there were several days I just had to go and cry in the bogs.

IMO the issue, as with most indirect discrimination , is when someone isn't 'clearly' the best candidate for the job.
It's not unusual to have several capable candidates. Or even, just two. Doesn't matter, if there's only one job a decision has to be made. Especially for a small business it comes down to perception. Anybody who doesn't fit the 'ideal' - looks unhealthy/childbearing age/whatever will be discarded.

OP, you asked for honest answers. If you yourself are shocked at how you look, others are unlikely to have a better perception.

But as I don't know the context of what roles you're applying for, can't tell if it has any effect.

The diagnosis itself would not put me off but the description said "visibly anorexic" so presumably the person is in a current state of being obviously both physically and mentally unwell so no, I would not hire somebody in that situation.

I've already responded (you're guilty of the same crime which is not reading TFT).

My takeaway on this, naively it seems, is that people apply for jobs they're capable of doing. Apparently that's not the case.

If they had a BMI of 13 or below I'd worry about their health. Maybe you should weight them? Lol
I have been turned down for promotion once when my boss alleged I was anorexic. The person who got the promotion was morbidly obese and I had to cover for them about 30% of the time they worked there as they were off sick.(no thanks from the big boss). I guess in an ideal world I'd hire people of a vaguely healthy appearance. But I'm not sure it's legal to discriminate in that way?

Yes. If you create a nice working environment you could be life-changing for this person, and the structure that helps them to maintain/move towards health.

I see that you had already apologised - that was a stand up thing to do. I'm sorry I didn't mention this earlier but I was doing other things.

I work with someone who is severely anorexic and there is no way anyone would hire her if they saw her(she desperately needs treatment and this is very clear when you see her). She is in a high stress role that should have a lot of responsibility, but because we know her and feel responsible for her, we have carved out a setup that kind of works. It does massively impact on her work though so I don’t think her references would be good if she went for another similar role.

When you say visibly anorexic, what do you mean?
There is a big difference between being a slim 7 stone (where they wouldn’t realise if you had anorexia or not and you could just be naturally slim) and being alarmingly slim 5 or 6 stone.
I think it would be discrimination not to employ you just based on that - in the same way as it would be discrimination not to employ somebody morbidly obese. Obviously there are going to be employers who don’t care about discrimination though.

We have a similar situation in our office not relating to the person being anorexic but had a traumatic event last year and since coming back she has basically just not really been able to do her job effectively so is just sort of given minor admin tasks to look like she is doing something. No one can really have the heart to dismiss her on grounds of capability or health because of what happened, so it just sort of carries on. I guess it's like lighter duties but really means she's being paid way above the role she is actually doing. It's a difficult situation.

I'm the mother of an anorexic teenager. I can now see the signs in others, it's more than just being slim. Knowing what I know now about the condition and its mental/emotional turmoil and the physical dangers that malnutrition causes, if I was an employer I'm afraid I would think twice before employing someone with the condition.

I’m a teacher and when I was unwell with an eating disorder I felt like it wasn’t ideal. I remember teaching a lesson on how to have a healthy relationship with food and your body and feeling like an absolute fraud 😂 I wasn’t severely underweight, but looked unwell in hindsight and lost a lot of weight rapidly and noticeably. I’m still surprised (and glad) that I wasn’t spoken to about it.