for thinking everyone at work should not have to pick up the slack because a colleague is too overweight to do her share?

[Twigggy]

I work in a job where some of the tasks involve lifting carrying and moving things. It is not all heavy labour but everyone is expected to take turns so the workload is fair.

One of my colleagues has been with the company for years. Over time she has gained a lot of weight. She is now morbidly obese and is very open about the fact that she eats too much and does not have any medical condition causing it. She even jokes about it sometimes.

The issue is that as her weight has increased her ability to do the physical parts of the job has decreased. Management have quietly stopped assigning her any of the lifting or carrying tasks. That means the rest of us have to do more to cover her share which can be exhausting especially on busy days.

A few of us have raised this with our manager and HR but both said there is nothing they can do and that we need to be sensitive. Essentially we were told to just keep doing the extra work so we do not upset her.

No one has said anything to her directly because it feels like a sensitive topic and I do not want to be accused of being discriminatory. But it is frustrating that the burden is falling on the rest of us for something that is not due to illness or injury and that she openly admits is her own lifestyle choice.

I am starting to feel resentful. AIBU for thinking this is not fair?

What if a colleague damaged their leg playing football which meant that they'd no longer be able to lift and carry?

Or twisted their wrist during a freak yoga accident?

Or burnt themselves during cooking?

Or had COPD via smoking?

All are caused by "lifestyle choices"...

It depends how much of your job is physical. Folk in the police or firefighters have to maintain and demonstrate their fitness to keep their job..

Uh-huh, demanding or even just expecting ‘fairness’ at work is a fools errand. If you have an outcome you need - eg less lifting and carrying - keep a cool head and appeal for legitimate accommodations.

How many people do you know who can afford to engage a dietician and a trainer?

I'm wondering how the appraisal would go:

Timekeeping: excellent
Absence rate: excellent
Targets: all met
Relationships with others: excellent, always friendly and positive
Progression: not approved due to waist measurement
Target for next cycle: buy WLIs and lose <10% of bodyweight

OPs appraisal:

Timekeeping: excellent
Absence rate: excellent
Targets: all met
Relationships with others: very unpleasant about colleague and posting information online to invite further criticism that colleague may read and recognise as herself
Progression: approved due to waist measurement
Target for next cycle: not to be quite so much of a dick on social media

Is this an office type job where the lifting/carrying is to put supplies away?

Or a factory where she's really now just been given "token" jobs to do because they don't want to fire her for being "fat"?

There are very obese people in my family. The ones under 60 can still lift things no problem. Sure, they wouldn't want to be running around, but they can certainly lift and carry. Are you sure it's her obesity which is the issue rather than, say, a back problem?
If you feel you are lifting more than you can manage, then speak to your manager.

True

If the lifting and carrying is affecting your health then complain and ask for lighter duties. Personally I would prefer to be walking about doing things rather than stuck at a desk all day. If the other person can't do the work and it's specified in their contract then they could have fired her, but it seems they have resolved the issue by modifying her job. Whether they will do the same for you, you would have to ask and see what they say, but her circumstances have no bearing on your discussions with management about needing lighter work.

I would also love to see the HR meeting that would follow a manager telling an employee they need to engage a dietician and trainer...

This. I would imagine the jokes are deflection & she’s not actually thinking her weight gain is hilarious. It sounds like you might be fairly new to the working world, the best advice I could give anyone in work is don’t worry about what everyone else is doing and focus on your own work & output. Learning about equity over equality is important too!

Are you the same person who was complaining about a colleague not disclosing she was on weight loss injections?

This is such an obvious goady post, the op is even called Twiggy for fucks sake 🙄

Never noticed that bit.. thanks.

Totally didn't notice that, thanks

Get rid of her by feeding her more. Bring in cakes and chocolates and watch as Janet the Gannet eats herself to death.

I hate people like this who revel in their laziness. Laziness to curb their appetite, do any exercise and won’t pull their weight at work.

You assume that they have quietly made this decision because you weren’t aware of it, but there may well have been talks with your colleague behind the scenes. There could be factors at play that you aren’t aware of which led to a risk assessment preventing her from lifting. Why are you so arsed?

No it's not. Management are obviously happy with the work she does or they wouldn't keep her on.

Maybe she has got medical iasues, just not disclosed to you. Even if they are issues that are caused by the weight, then they could still be valid reasons to excuse her from heavy lifting.
Is it fair to you, no. But also, there are employment laws protrcting her if she has disclosed medical issues.

OP your issue is that you have an unmanageable workload to the extent that you state you are "exhausted" by it. Speak to your line manager about how they propose to resolve this - recruitment, assigning parts of the work to other teams etc.

So it’s okay to be a CF and expect other people to do your job if you’re fat, and nobody is allowed to point out the bleeding obvious or be resentful about having to pick up your slack? If OP had just posted about a CF slacking and expecting others to pick up the slack, we’d all be on her side; just because she posted the reason she’s suddenly in the wrong? No wonder this country is going to the dogs; you can get away with slacking because it’s unkind for people to pick you up on it? FGS.

It would be and has been in my workplace. I was in a near identical situation as the OP coupled with the fact the colleague took six months off sick every year for three years in a row. Management kept muttering about capability proceedings.

Ultimately yes reasonable adjustments have to be made but someone can still be fired if incapable of doing their job regardless if it’s due to a disability. Though they’d normally look at adjusting tasks if possible. So less lifting and more admin? But yes it’s unfair on others. But not many HR teams actually will do anything. Ask for an OH appointment saying your job is too physical/ too much lifting?

It’s not temporary, it’s progressive. If any colleague was progressively doing less work and everyone else was picking up more, then it definitely should be tackled.

I agree with most pp - you don’t know her reasons for gaining weight and if you’re having too much work put on you it’s a management issue.

What kind of role is that you do? I ask because when I worked in an office I had to speak up for myself and a few other junior staff being asked to move a whole lot of heavy boxes.

My role was very much a desk job (PR account executive talking to clients and writing content ) and we hadn’t been trained to lift safely etc and it was not part of our job description at all , so I raised it as a Health and safety issue.