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.

Most of my office are overweight, obese, diabetic, over 60, smokers, etc.

We have no plans to ask them to confirm this in emails.

God some employers (hr) are really loving this excuse to pry.

Rates are down, so we should be thinking more towards return to normality rather than big brother.

Are employers just supposed to sack everyone to reduce risk?

Not all work can be done at home.

@weallhavethings yes I get the corporate line but in reality what would it be? Ability to work from home I guess. But I can't think of much else. It's not the job of an employer to attempt to help employees lose weight.

@Ted27 actually yes, there is assessment being done with race as a risk factor - including for the entire NHS, with one potential mitigation being taking people off the frontline.

I'm willing to bet very large amounts of money that the OP has not been asked only to declare obesity but to declare risk factors.

There is no point in getting het up and defensive about this, any more than about any other factor.

www.nhsemployers.org/covid19/health-safety-and-wellbeing/risk-assessments-for-staff

Topcat, rates are down, but if we actually "returned to normality" they would not stay that way! So we need to work out how close to normal we can get sensibly

In many cases, it may be that the workplace needs a certain number of staff to not be in the office to meet covid safe working practises. In that situation, I would put low risk people in the office first

@Stuckforthefourthtime

I'd have no objection to that. People working in front line health services are clearly more at risk from exposure.

For someone like me, who works in an office, I am at no more risk of contracting Covid, than any of the other 600 people who work there, merely because I am overweight.
In face the best thing my employer could do for me is to get me back to the office because then I would be walking 2 miles to the office, 2 miles homes and running up and down three flights of stairs several times a day.
Interestingly I have not gained weight during lockdown, because surprisngly I havent spent five months stuffind my face with doughnuts, I have however lost an incredible level of fitness. I will be back in the gym in two weeks time and as life return to some semblance of normality I will be back to walking an average of 10 miles a day three days a week

my concern would be how to the risk of inappropriate, invasive bullying would be mitigated in these situations, especially in lets say Family run buisnesses where HR is non existant.

We have asked everyone to declare any vulnerabilities but if they don't, we take their word for it. It does mean they won't get an individual risk assessment though. We havent only asked obese people, we've asked everyone, so things like BAME and asthma are also included. Hopefully this is the case for you too OP.

Nurses at higher risk won’t be put on a covid ward. That’s what the risk assessment helps with, where to deploy people.

[quote birthdaybelle]@weallhavethings yes I get the corporate line but in reality what would it be? Ability to work from home I guess. But I can't think of much else. It's not the job of an employer to attempt to help employees lose weight. [/quote]
Many do. Our company does. Obesity can be the result of, or lead to MH issues, stress, poor work life balance, and many other problems good companies care about supporting their employees with.

We have free counselling services (up to 6 sessions a year) for any reason including weight issues, also they pay an external provider for services for MH, finance, debt, education, stress, etc which can help or point you in the direction of where to get support.

They have a OHD presence on every site at least 2 days a week who will support anyone who wants with a weekly weigh in and advice. If there is a significant risk with obesity and an employee is concerned I wouldn't be surprised if they allowed WFH for those who can while providing services to help weight loss.

Those who can't work from home any company can look at reasonable adjustments, for example my niece who is vulnerable (for other reasons), her employer has offered she could temporarily move to night shift so she had less customer contact.

@ted27 yes, you are at no more risk of catching covid than anyone else, but if you have something that classifies you as higher risk (whether BMI or something else, including protected and often sensitive characteristics like age, ethnicity and pregnancy) and you DO catch it, you are more likely to get seriously ill or die.
Employers have a responsibility to assess these vulnerabilities and manage risk appropriately - for example it may not be possible for everyone to be provided with the right technology and responsibilities to work from home, but if it's possible for some then they should ensure that the vulnerable are given the chance to do so.

If they don't do that they leave themselves open for legal challenges (as well as any ethical concerns) if someone dies of covid or becomes seriously ill and they did not take steps to identify vulnerable employees and mitigate risk.

@Stuckforthefourthtime

as I said up thread, I may be fat but I am not uneducated or unintelligent, I understand perfectly well what the risk is.
I also said that I would have no objection to the survey you linked to because it does not single out any one factor and in a setting where employees are exposed to risk it makes sense.
However I was responding to an OP which did not indicate that she was in any such role or that she was being asked to respond to a general survey.
In my own situation, I do not work with the public, I sit in an office, there is nothing in my working environment which puts me at additional risk.
The term obesity is also very wide ranging. I fall into the medically obese category by a couple of BMI points. No its great but neither am I a candidate for my own episode of My 600lb life. As with many things people should really be able to do their own risk assessments.
Yes employers have a duty of care, I have some concerns about one member of my team in particular but there is only so far I can go.

Yes but offering services and allowing people to take them up at will is very different from asking people if they are overweight and targeting those people with "help". Plenty of fat people don't mind being fat.

I worry that this will become part of the screening process once it's seen as part and parcel to tell your employer what your BMI is

This email OP, did it just say obese people need to contact them or did it list other vulnerabilities such as diabetics, BAME, pregnant women etc? If it did, I think you need to accept that this is only the company doing a risk assessment and following government advice as to who is classed as vulnerable and who isn't, and not a crusade against fat people. If it didn't list any other vulnerabilities, and literally just said obese people, then yes, that seems a bit shitty and could have definitely been put forward better.

I do think though, like a PP has mentioned, it is nigh on impossible to raise the issue of obesity without offending people, even when it really needs to be addressed for the sake of everyone's safety. Regardless of how's its been put across, ultimately your work do genuinely need to know because if they're seen to ask or do a proper risk assessment it could land them in a world of pain; this is about identifying potentially vulnerable staff in which a brand new virus causing a pandemic of unprecedented proportions has been proven to be more virulent in this group of individuals - it's not about fat shaming.

If a 'vulnerable' staff member says 'well actually im perfectly ok with being in the office regardless of being classed as vulnerable' then that's their valid choice. But companies have got to be seen to do risk assessments and ask these questions.

My employer sent advice at the beginning of lockdown and obesity was in the category of those most at risk. I sent my manager an email saying I fell into that category and she was lovely about it, just very professional and sensible. Hope you find the same is true for you.

I'll tell you a story about my own stupidity over announcing my weight though. I went parascending with the girl guides as a teenager and they had a docent harness for those over a certain weight. We had already been put into groups and you needed to actually put your hand up and change group to go use it, and i was too embarrassed to do that. Luckily they needed to even out group numbers so needed volunteers to change and I could do that, otherwise I'd have gone splat for the sake of embarrassment don't be like teenage me