How important are appearances when it comes to someone’s job?

[Shallabamba]

Nurse here. Throughout my years of training and years qualified my weight has fluctuated. I’ve been skinny, fat, overweight due to health conditions and then put on weight due to pregnancy and back down to a healthy weight now. I’ve read a fair few threads on here where some posters have said they wouldnt take advice from a fat nurse, I’ve also read numerous articles mainly from the Daily Fail regarding how all nurses sit on our fat arses all day 😂 I also have had fellow nurses who have said would you really take advice from a fat HCP? So I ask you, on this anon public forum would you really judge a fat nurse? Would you think they would less competent than a slim nurse? Or do you think their job has nothing to do with their weight? I also asked myself this question in relation to other jobs, for example would I trust a hairdresser to cut and style my hair if I thought they had really rubbish hair? Or a PT who was out of shape? Are appearances important when it comes to someone’s profession?

A fat nurse wouldn’t bother me. Even if they’re giving advice I’d trust they are giving the right nutrition advice! There could be all sorts of reasons they’re not following it themselves. Doesn’t make the advice wrong.

This comment says more about you than whatever the GP was like.

So it’s like, okay, if you’re telling me I need to do xyz to manage my weight… why haven’t you done it? If you haven’t been able to stick to doing it, why are you recommending it?

Maybe because it is sound advice, that they are giving. Just because they, for whatever reason, are not able to follow it themselves, does not make what they are saying wrong! Why should they assume that someone else would not be able to successfully lose weight, just because they have failed to?

My hairdresser said to never trust a hairdresser with good hair. It meant they weren't busy!
Never lecture someone on healthy eating if you are even slightly overweight, people won't listen. Talk about how hard it is to eat healthily, that will feel more authentic. And these days more people are overweight that not, so you have an audience.
I do judge appearance related to cleanliness and appropriate clothing. Anyone in a professional role should be clean and wear hole free clothes.

I struggle with my weight and enjoy watching ‘My 600lb life’. Always smile a bit when Dr Nowzaradan berates his patients for the food they eat when he’s clearly a couple of stone overweight himself.

In general, what other people weigh is none of my business but if an overweight dietician tried to give me advice, I’d definitely be thinking, ‘well it doesn’t work, does it?’

Had a surgeon give me a long lecture on smoking, only to find them out the front smoking.

I did enjoy that conversation.

Her personality has nothing to do with the advice which she gave you. In her line of work, she would have seen countless obese patients, and no doubt seen her fair share of the problems that arise, as a consequence of being overweight. Take her advice, or don't. But her being stick thin, is a ridiculous reason not too.

They were doing their job: they are expected to give you a lecture about smoking. And no doubt their doctor has done the same to them. The fact you claim you enjoyed your childish "gotcha" moment says way more about your unpleasant personality issues than it does about the doctor. The doctor's own health issues do not in any way mean that he/she can't then give appropriate and necessary advice to a patient. For example: are you seriously suggesting that a doctor who contracted an STD couldn't then give any advice to/treat anyone who has STDs or is in danger of contracting them??? Of course not!

To be honest so many nurses i’ve seen have been overweight I’m more surprised by a slim
one. I’m not saying that to be rude, it’s a factual observation. I even googled it once and it said a lot of it was due to the hours and irregular/rushed meal times. My midwife was huge.

Having been in and out of hospital over the years the number of fat nurses surprised me as the distance they cover daily is amazing. As long as they did their jobs properly I had no problem with anyone.

Size is neither here nor there, it's all down to capability and personality and I wouldn't dream of being opinionated about it.

I try not to judge but it's natural to notice.

I don't care about someone's weight if they give advice about weight, the most important thing is the tone they deliver their message in. I recently had my NHS 40s health check with a pretty overweight HCA. They knew their stuff, it was a nice meeting with no judgment felt at all, just advice on best practice. You don't need to be slim to know eating a lot of processed food isn't good for you. They didn't reference their own weight but did understand me when I talked about not getting enjoyment from exercise. If I go for a run, I just feel tired after, not energised! So in the context of the advice to increase activity, my 'barriers' were met with understanding, and I really appreciated that.

I'm also aware things like shift patterns can really impact how easy it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle - I've not been in that boat but it's not a hard stretch to see long hours, night shifts, shifting between the two etc, will be a natural trigger to dysfunctional eating, a hurdle most people don't have.

However, there are issues with weight interfering in the speed of delivery of care provision in medical settings, and in this situation I do thing it can be problematic. Excess weight very often leads to physical problems with backs, knees, etc etc, which has a direct impact on someone's ability to do a job which is often physical. It's really hard, but this exists in many physical jobs. We have a contract cleaner at work that is incredibly slow due to their weight, at what point do you say 'you can't do it!'? It's so hard! Hospital nursing and care staff whose physical weight impacts the way they do their job - it's a difficult conversation to have.

It’s a particular common phenomena for anti bmi sentiment to come from overweight medical professionals… I take it you have data and evidence to back up claim? For someone that helps people lose weight for a living you certainly have negative fews on fat people? I think you’re in the wrong job 🤭

Go online to social media and search up BMI or body positive doctors/health care. You’ll see a tonne of content from a tonne of HCP. There’s your evidence.

What negative views do you perceive me to have about overweight people?

You’re using social media as your evidence? 😂Because of course social media is a reputable source 😂😂😂😂 Jesus that’s worse than using Wikipedia. No one should be taking any kind of advice from you.

You’re asking me for evidence that overweight and shilling HCP are saying BMI is useless. I’m directing you to posts from those individuals saying BMI is useless. Not everything in life needs to be backed by rigorous, unbiased studies and data. Sometime you can simply look around and observe something that people are doing or saying.

We have someone at work who is responsible for interior design and she always looks like a slob. Has a standard work uniform of a shirt and jeans which in itself wouldn't be a problem but both are at least three sizes too big, the jeans dragging on the floor and all shredded at the bottom, hanging dangerously low and threatening to expose her bum at any moment. Shirt always incredibly creased. Hair never looks like it has been brushed.

She meets often with clients and I always wonder what kind of impression they get of the company after seeing her. Definitely doesn't look like someone who would be at the forefront of fashion and design.

Tbh I feel comforted when an overweight HCP is dealing with me because I know they’ll understand the complexities of being overweight and won’t just preach and judge.

So you would feel the same if they were skinny?

Someone giving their opinion on social media is not evidence or research, it’s literally their opinion 😂If you make such a big claim, like you did, you have to be able to back it up. And yes, in my world of science and nursing everything does have to be backed up rigorously, based on unbiased studies and data. Also observation is not fact. Very worrying you actually speak to people when you think observing is fact 🤯

My claim was “People with traits x and/or y are saying z” and I told you where you can find people with traits x and/or y saying z.

What “research” are you expecting? You’re being really weird

I usually do around 8 miles per day. Legs are always aching

I would trust an overweight person to be a personal trainer. Just because a person's nutrition isn't on point doesn't mean they aren't athletic. I train with channel swimmers, they're overweight but some of the strongest swimmers I know. Im half a stone overweight. I'll be running my second half marathon next weekend, I strength training twice a week, swim twice, cycle everywhere, and run once.

As for nursing, I wouldn't see them as any less competent. They'll be giving the same nutrition advice as a nurse of healthy weight or an underweight one.

Body fat helps with buoyancy, which is useful when swimming. That’s why whales tend to have a lot of fat.

You would probably be a more efficient runner and cycler with less weight.

People only ignore what somebody is saying with their appearance given as a reason when it's something they don't want to hear.