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?

I would not judge weight, but I do judge clothing.

So do you apply this to every job? What was/is your profession?

Without a doubt, I have more faith and trust in the ability of people to do their job who are themselves healthy both in body and mind.

Whether they are a teacher, doctor, surgeon or nurse, a pilot, an aid worker, a soldier, a politician or a police officer, and so on.

No I don't, only if I am looking for / need advice or help myself. And specific to the requirement.

My hair dressers hair was cut pretty badly; however his colleagues hair cuts were amazing .

he cut hair like a master , who has also done celebrity hair.

No not an HCA. I am Advanced Nurse Practitioner . Just trying to stay vague so I’m not recognised. I work across primary and secondary care.

Healthy in body and mind is such a broad term though. What if a nurse was in a wheelchair due to MS or spinal injury? You as the patient wouldnt know that, so how would you be able to judge? Healthy mind could also apply to depression or borderline personality disorder or ASD even neurological disorders. You wouldn’t know they had it.

Ah okay. I, like you have had comments about my weight from patients because I’m slim, some might even say I’m skinny. So yes I know we get judged on this. It’s not that they think I can’t do my job it’s that they think I’m not going to be sympathetic to them or be able to understand some people can find losing weight challenging.

In your post you said some HCAs weight have affected their job, but didn’t mention nurses. I’ve been a HCA when I was a student and I would say it is more physical than a nurse’s job. Yes, as nurses we sometimes have do have to help out and it is physical. But doing obs, turning and washing patients isn’t all I do as a nurse but it is the main duties as a HCA. Also surely it also depends on your job role and where you’re based? I’m currently in critical care so 1 to 1 nursing, any moving on the patient is always done by at least 2/3 + people. I’ve previously worked as a practice nurse and I mainly sat down when I was seeing patients. Also worked in the community where the only physical part was walking up any types of stairs if patients lived in flats. So for me, no I don’t think my weight when I was fatter affected my ability to do my job.

I know them from outside their job, so I know it is anorexia. They don’t ever offer health advice to me but I do sometimes wonder what patients make of it. I do think HCP are the same as anyone else when it comes to health and have the same problems as everyone else (the nhs is one of the biggest employers in the world so it would be weird if they didn’t). Most HCP just give the facts and explain the recommendations so I don’t judge unless they are judgemental of me, which they very rarely are.

Would I judge a nurse's competence based solely on their weight? No, not at all. I'd judge her on her behaviour and skills. Would I care if she was giving weight loss advice and was overweight herself? No, I'd assume she was going through the checkbox lists the NHS tells her to. However, if I felt she was judging me on my appearance, I would indeed judge her in return.

Are people in other professions judged on their weight? Well, everyone secretly judges others for one thing or another. As a customer, I wouldn't care what anyone's weight is, but it is an acknowledged fact that it's easier for better looking people (tall, slim, blonde if you're a woman) to get ahead. Their salaries are higher and they're more likely to be promoted.

I couldn't give a stuff what an NHS medical professional looks like.

Unless they turned up for a surgery wearing a Borat style mankini?

I would hope the person possessed the qualities needed for the job. So nurses need to be medically competent and also kind and seem caring.

A receptionist or customer facing person doesn't need to wear a particular type of clothing. As long as it's clean.

But obviously they often wear uniform to identify them and for brand identity.

A supermodel or actor obviously must look a certain way at work as their career depends on it.

Ah I see. Any HCP who is judgemental of patients are in the wrong job as far as I’m concerned. I’ve met some quite awful HCP when I was younger and wished I had said something at the time but now I just call them out on it, but it rarely happens to me. Non judgemental is in our code of ethics that we have to abide by, other professions will have similar.

I would take medical advice from the person best qualified to do so. Being skinny doesn't make you a medical expert. People on mumsnet are weird about weight issues. I honestly wouldn't ask on here

It depends which kind of advice but honestly, medical appointments are so hard to come by now I’d probably just be really grateful anyway. Putting myself in the shoes of an overweight patient, I think I’d rather have that chat with a medical professional who struggled with their weight too - like your example as an ex smoker. The type of advice I can categorically tell you I don’t accept from unfit people (I’m not saying all overweight people are unfit) is the type which feigns concern about doing “too much” exercise.

Very important.
If they are fat, they are in no position to give diet advice.
If they are scruffy, they are in no position to give about higiene.
And so on.

And being skinny also doesn’t mean you’re healthy. You could be a drug user or have an earring disorder. What about weight loss surgery and fat jabs. Appears a lot of people still have an issue with overweight people.

Not all nurses give advice on diet. I’ve only discussed it with patients when I was a GP nurse. Never discussed it in any role job.

If this were the case obesity levels would have been the same over generations and across populations, but they're not are they? The obesity crisis has correlated pretty well with the increase in high fat/high sugar foods, UPFs, and sedentary lifestyles.

You're kidding yourself if you think there are huge numbers of people eating really well and exercising who are seriously overweight because of their genes or gut health.

Yes. All of which are now known to seriously impact gut health and etc. We know that gut flora (or changing it) can have a big impact on body fat. It’s very much an area of emerging medicine.
I did not say that there are loads of very overweight people who are eating brilliantly and taking lots of exercise. But the issue is far more complicated than you seem to understand and reducing it to a simple intake/exercise equation is just ignorant and a plain bad science. Of course it’s a part, but it’s far more than that. For most people, eating better and exercising hasn’t been shown to reduce weight significantly and maintain that loss.

If it's the UPFs/bad diet that is causing the problems with gut health/changing gut flora (and in turn issues with body fat and so on) then eating better would, in fact, cure those problems wouldn't it? So, the issue is diet...

Yes diet - don’t buy multi size packs of crisps, chocolate bars and other snacks. No child needs them on a regular basis - don’t feed them rubbish as soon as they come out of school. A packet of crisps or a chocolate bar should be an occasion treat and not something stocked up at home.
Set good habits when they are little.