Very overweight - harming job prospects

[Papergirl1968]

I’m looking for a job after six years of not working.
I was in a profession for much of my working life, but took voluntary redundancy and time out to raise my DC.
I’ve always been overweight and this perhaps wasn’t so much of an issue in my previous work because of qualifications, experience, etc
Jobs in my former profession are few and far between, besides which the industry had moved on in the previous six years. I’m not sure I have the confidence or the energy to go back to it so I’m looking for a part time role in a supermarket or office.
However I do think that as well as my age (nearly 52) and lack of relevant experience being an issue, being very overweigh will put employers off. Sitting at a checkout would be fine but don’t think I could stand for very long which rules out a lot of shops.
I’m trying to lose weight and have recently acquired a dog so I’m doing more walking and trying to build up stamina. Other than the aches and pains that you’d expect of someone my age who is carrying a lot of extra weight, and being borderline diabetes, I’m fit and healthy.
However I know if I was recruiting myself and all other things being equal I’d probably choose applicants that were a healthy-ish weight because I’d guess they’d be less likely to go off sick or get injured.
Just really wondered what others thought?

💐
Take care of yourself.

I think you should lose weight for you. I interview people all the time at work. Looks matter, but I care more that the candidates look presentable and professional than their size. I have some really over weight people working for me and in my experience of 20 years as a manager there is no correlation between size and ability to do your job.

agree with @Pollynextdoor that there is no correlation between size and ability to do the job.

I'm slightly overweight size 14 somtimes a 16 it depends on diffrent clothes. sometimes can fit a 12 too. but still failed loads of interviews recently because of poor examples I had prepared for myself which didn't answer the questions.

you said 'a slimmer candidate is probably going to get the job over a fat one'. I'm not sure about that because where i work its based on merit and even if someone has a disability (physical or mental) if they meet the minimum criteria they get an interview.

I know a school run mum who became a carer. She walks to all her visits. I often see her and have offered her a lift a few times. Since doing the job she has lost about 5 stone. She looks great now.

I used to work for the police and jobs and promotions probably were genuinely based on merit, as each interview question was scored, and the one with the highest was successful.
But I suspect supermarket and lower level office jobs are different and that prejudices or personal feelings of the interviewer do have an impact.

I think you might be right about supermarket or some lower level office jobs, only if they involve physical side of things were your weight would be an issue. such as standing for long periods, heavy lifting, putting items on shelves etc.

But in general I would say the weight would not affect you getting a job where its just sitting in an office. the way I see it what has someones weight got to do with how they can do work on a computer?

@Carolhh depending on weight, you will need expensive office chairs that support a higher weight limit, back and problem are more likely, and our PAs also fo a lot of running around organising, it gets expensive quickly.
i‘m willing to risk that, delegate more physical tasks and quite happily pay for an exceptional candidate, but not for somebody who doesn‘t stand out from the crowd.

@ohnothisagain you're right I forgot about that, there is cost involved for chair etc.

just trying to motivate OP, life can be tough

@Carolhh its not a problem for an exceptional candidate though- exceptional comes in loads of different forms, not just formal qualifications:) quick thinking, related engagement, very easy to talk to, depending on the job there are loads of ways to be exceptional

I’ve never needed a special chair in previous jobs. I’ve probably put a bit of weight on since then but I never thought of that.

@ohnothisagain glad to hear about exceptional candidate.

There's also the thing were people say they are too old etc, but I find that with older staff they can be more understanding and mature attitude which is good for customer services.

I just read today someone from home office lost their job due to gross misconduct, so maybe a younger person has more chances to get a job, employers need someone who won't do silly mistakes and that they have to be forced to have to sack the person