Asked to contact work and declare obesity

[sillywoman456]

Hello,

So I've been feeling quite positive today. I came off all my ADs about six weeks ago after seven years because I'd gained so much weight on them, and it's been hard but I feel I'm coming out the other side. I had a bad binge yesterday, but today I have been reading my Overeaters Anonymous literature and feeling a bit better. All in all, I've felt more positive than in weeks, and then I got this email from work ...
In order to do a risk assessment, they want everyone who is obese to contact them to discuss. They want contacting by the end of next week.

Of course, I know I am morbidly obese (nearly 16 stone) and they must know to look at me, so it's not that I'm fooling anyone, but the thought of writing this email or going in for a meeting about it is just terrible. What should I do? If I ignore it, then someone will probably approach and ask me about it and that will be worse.

Please be kind. I know I shouldn't have got in this mess, but here I am and I just don't think I can contact them about this. I can't even ask anyone's advice in real life because I feel so humiliated. Thank you.

It's a welfare issue and please don't feel humiliated or ashamed. All they will want to do is assess the risks to your health, it's not so they can point and laugh, it's to help you, not harm you. You're not alone in being overweight, I would imagine there are a lot of other employees receiving the same invitation to be risk assessed.

Try not to see this as a personal attack or a negative event.

Jesus that's brutal OP. I'm not sure what to say, except if you avoid it, it'll surely be worse having them chase? Can you find ways to remove some of the emotion? Use very technical language?

On the other hand, this feels like a lot of an overreach on their part, no??

Do you have someone you trust at work to talk to? Do you have a sponsor or similar at OA?
I would imagine that the discussion will centre around how to sheild/work from home/minimise risk of covid rather than discussing your weight. And please don't feel like you have to justify or disclose anything you aren't comfortable sharing. It would have been worse if they assumed your risk due to obesity on looks and just invited you. Anyway, I would keep it simple and say yes my bmi is obese and i would reply sooner than later to minimise time stewing in what ifs.
This can push you either way, into a binge or more drive to reduce your weight so please get some support.

I think this is inappropriate of them. I was obese at the beginning of lockdown and I would have been gutted to receive something like that. My work have asked people to fill out a questionnaire where they ask about a range of risk factors and then they decide whether you count as too high risk to go to the office. That way it doesn’t pick on one risk factor that’s stigmatising enough as it is.
I think you need to assess for yourself whether to reply to it. I know that very high BMI can be a risk but I think people have to make the decision themselves and weigh up pros and cons. Depends on whether you feel unsafe about going back to work I guess.

I think I'd ignore it. It's off-the-scale rude and intrusive. My guess is that no one would chase you about it, OP.

On second thought i agree with Shed. A better email would have been please let us know/fill in the form to state whether you have any of the criteria assessed as high risk for covid (and then a tick box list: pregnant, diabetic, bmi over 40, etc etc.
It does put you on the spot. Ugh om so sorry op!

I had to fill in a coronavirus risk assessment for work.

My obesity/age/neurological score put me in the medium risk category, instead of the low risk.

It was embarrassing, but it needs to be done.

How tall are you OP? I am 5'3 and 16 stone puts me just under the 40 BMI. So you may not need to declare it if that is what they are assessing.

I had to self declare to my work the week before lockdown and was really embarrassed, but they were super nice and discreet about it. I've slowly been losing weight since, long way to go but every step counts

@sillywoman456
Risk assessment for what?

Thank you for all your replies, and for understanding how awkward this is!

My height is 5-4, so BMI just below 40. I've been going to work throughout, so I'm not sure why this has only been raised now.

It says that if someone comes forward as being obese, they will discuss with you, fill in a personalised risk assessment and perhaps forward to another agency to work with you(?). It feels like a bit of a box-ticking exercise, although I'm sure it's well meant.

I think I agree with a PP who said I should assess my own risk and decide what to do. Based on that (and my obvious humiliation) my instinct is to ignore it. But the thought of someone approaching me discreetly and saying, "Sillywoman, did you see that email about ..." makes me whole body cringe!

Op they are clearly trying to discharge their duty. You can’t embarrassment get in the way of you engaging with them. Honestly I mean this gently but they can see you, it’s not like it’s a secret. They just wish to keep everyone safe.

I had to do the COVID back to work training this week and it was made very clear you CANNOT comeback to the office if you have any of a long list of "conditions" from cardio vascular disease, BMI over 30, diabetes, aged over 60 etc. My Bmi is definitely over 30. I haven't been asked to go back in yet but am hoping it doesn't come to me having to say to my boss I am too fat. That I can just say I meet criteria off the list....

This is completely unacceptable. I'm absolutely shocked. Do you have a union? Just wow!

@CokeEnStock it's bmi over 40 for risk increase I think.

Also op people on mumsnet are hugely fat phobic and don't belive you can be healthy and overweight or obese. Try reading about health ant any size. So I'm not sure you will get lots of empathy here. If you're not feeling great about it this thread won't help sorry.

Sorry to be blunt but they are asking for a reason whats more important bit off embarrassment or the company having the full facts and be able to put things in place for YOUR safety

This is completely unacceptable. I'm absolutely shocked. Do you have a union? Just wow

What? Why? Why must obesity be so shameful that it can’t ever be mentioned? It’s not.

Also op people on mumsnet are hugely fat phobic and don't belive you can be healthy and overweight or obese

How can you possibly not know after all rhe media attention that this is nothing to do with being healthy. It’s to do with the increased risk from Covid that obesity brings, due to reduced lung capacity and complexity in intubation.

Obese employees are identified as a higher rise 're Covid.
This should have been included in any risk assessment for Covid. I would have expected any R A to have been completed ages ago sorry.
We do the same for BAME and obese children and staff at school.
It brings you additional safety and I wouldn't take it personally.

Employers saying that people with a BMI over 30 can’t come back to the office are being ridiculous. I had a BMI of 32.7 at the time of the outbreak and I was pretty healthy, albeit overweight and in a younger age group. To suggest that I should shield and it’s unsafe for me to work is a huge overreaction and as an adult I should be able to make the decision myself. Had I received that email there is no way I would have engaged with it if it only focused on obesity as the increased risk was relatively minimal given the very low mortality in my age group.

I have lost 2 stone over lockdown and am no longer obese and now have a perfectly healthy waist to height ratio which is a better indicator of health risk than BMI. I am about 10 lb from a healthy BMI too. I was partly spurred on by the wish to be as healthy as possible but I still don’t agree that everyone with a BMI over 30 is some sort of ticking time bomb. I think that sending that sort of thing to people is unnecessary especially as the OP has been in the office during the pandemic anyway. If she was at such a high risk why is the employer waiting til now to do anything about it?

Unless your weight is a factor preventing you from doing your job properly I think this is inappropriate, unless they are also going to have a similar discussion with BAME people, smokers, asmatics, people over the age of 50 etc etc
I'm not against having to discuss health issues with my employer - I wss quite poorly in 2018/19 and needed surgery. My ability to do my job was impacted so a conversation was needed.

I am overweight, I am not in the least embarrassed about it, I am in reasonsable health for my age, my weight has no bearing on my ability to do my job and therefore none of my employers business.

I would regard this as an intrusion on my privacy unless they were going to survey the whole workforce to identify risk factors, not just those people with more visible risk factors.

Well, having checked my BMI I’m pleasantly surprised that mine is 37.7

I haven’t been asked to complete a risk assessment, and I wouldn’t be embarrassed as my boss is similarly sized to me. But if it is to protect us, then I guess I would respond accurately.

Also we all know that overweight does not always relate to time off sick

Yes agree that it’s ridiculous to single out obesity when there are a range of risk factors and it’s only BMI of over 40 that is a proven risk anyway as it’s not conclusive under that weight. Age is by far the biggest risk factor.

I have had to ask my staff about their BMI. Thankfully I have a good relationship with my team and the member of staff was happy to discuss their weight with me. It's so tricky but it's to ensure people are safe

unless they are also going to have a similar discussion with BAME people, smokers, asmatics, people over the age of 50 etc etc

These are things they will know though. They can hardly say to someone “by the look of you you’re obese“ they have to ask. But they will know if an employee is bame, asthmatic or over fifty.

And smoking doesn’t increase risk. It’s thought to decrease it.,

it’s only BMI of over 40 that is a proven risk anyway

This is really incorrect, it’s proven it escalates the higher your Bmi. Till it reaches a peak at forty and over.

Bluntness for anyone under 40 or even under 50, the risk of death is pretty minute even if a person is obese (which one third of the population is). It might be twice as high than someone who has a BMI of 21 but when you’re talking such low numbers (well below 1%), it’s still a fairly remote risk. In any event, the peak of the pandemic was weeks ago and the OP was required to work so what the hell is her employer playing at doing this RA now.

And the ‘higher risk the higher the BMI’ sounds extremely simplistic and I’d be keen to see the research on this. Are you telling me that a muscular person with a BMI of 25 will fare worse than someone with little muscle tone with a BMI of 19. Because I think that is very unlikely.