Not fit enough for most jobs but not ill enough for benefits..ideas?

ellie101

Samanthamum wrote: »

I am working on my weight and hope that in 18 months/2 years I will be a healthy weight, but stull need to work in the meantime.

It might be worth asking your GP if they can give you some free exercise sessions at the local gym. Some areas do this (or used to, pretty sure they still will). I know the diet will be important but exercise will help you feel better (as Viktory mentioned).

A guy in my local council gym/swimming baths lost a lot of weight, and he'd got some free sessions through his GP. Someone else I know got offered indoor climbing when depressed (they'd been doing other workshops and the mental health team mentioned it to them).

Well worth going back to ask your GP, you never know what could be on offer that month. Good luck with it.

dickydonkin

Hammyman wrote: »

Plenty of lorry drivers are that yet seem quite capable of dragging 24 one tonne pallets out of a trailer, climbing up on loads to secure them etc etc etc.

Sitting on your bum 40hrs a week won't address the weight issue however addressing the weight issue WILL improve your mental state. You need to find an active job even if its low level.

And truck drivers are more susceptible to obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, musculoskeletal disease and stress than many other professions - that is fact.

I agree that many overweight drivers are quite capable of 'dragging' 1 tonne pallets out of trucks - that is why many of them WILL likely eventually suffer from one or more the above!

As for losing weight while undertaking sedentary roles, I managed to lose around two stone while sitting on my backside for the majority of the day. It isn't impossible although without stating the obvious, it does need willpower and sensible eating - although I found subtle changes to diet over a prolonged period worked better than 'crashing'.

misssmcc

i agree that having an active job will help the OP lose weight, but if she really cannot move for more than half an hour without dripping sweat that really won't do her employment any good. how will the boss react when his new employee is dripping sweat in front of customers/ other staff/ over goods etc? i am completely sympathetic, i lost 5 stone myself about 4 years ago so i know how it feels to struggle for breath and feel embarresed about those overweight bodily functions such as sweating. the good news is weight wise you should be able to lose alot of weight from having a good diet alone, plus some exercise when you get home from work. as for the work situation, if you do find a stress free job please let me know, mine is hellish lol

Evilm

I agree with a few others who are mentioning that you need to speak to your GP about 1)depression medication 2) Dietician and 3) exercise assistance. They do have resources to refer you to for this (but you may have to be persistant). Its very dangerous to just stop taking depression medication because "its just not working". Also speak to them about your fitness for work and whether your GP would be prepared to help you with ESA paperwork - its possible they will once they know how bad you find it all.

Unfortunately I can't think of any employment ideas that are less stressful and require very little movement. Good luck.

thor

dickydonkin wrote: »

And truck drivers are more susceptible to obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, musculoskeletal disease and stress than many other professions - that is fact.

I agree that many overweight drivers are quite capable of 'dragging' 1 tonne pallets out of trucks - that is why many of them WILL likely eventually suffer from one or more the above!

Maybe one but none of the rest. Apart from muscle/joint problems if not lifting correctly how will such actions bring on heart disease, cancer or diabetes?

dickydonkin wrote: »

As for losing weight while undertaking sedentary roles, I managed to lose around two stone while sitting on my backside for the majority of the day. It isn't impossible although without stating the obvious, it does need willpower and sensible eating - although I found subtle changes to diet over a prolonged period worked better than 'crashing'.

This I agree. When it comes to losing weight, eating is by far the most effective way to do it. To lose a pound of fat(3500Kcals) over a week you can either eat 500Kcals less per day(the same as say a packet of crisps and a choc bar) or run 5 miles daily. I know which method looks easiest to me. Having said that though it would of course be far better to combine to two.
The op must realise that more important than what they eat is just to eat LESS.

Decla

Just a warning that going on a low fat diet may exacerbate your depression.

People have mentioned above about seeing a doctor before changing your diet to lose weight and this is especially important when you have other health problems (like depression) affecting you.

Good luck.

dickydonkin

thor;44397488]Maybe one but none of the rest. Apart from muscle/joint problems if not lifting correctly how will such actions bring on heart disease, cancer or diabetes?

Because by virtue of the role - many truck drivers are overweight and I can state that as fact as I did the job for over 25 years.

Fortunately, I managed to lose my excessive weight.

If you are overweight - that increases the risk of heart disease/HBP and diabetes - that cannot be disputed.

Lugging heavy pallets around when overweight and/or unfit will likely put the heart under more pressure.

Overweight people have also an increased risk of Cancer - that is also a fact.

And here is another fact in respect of skin cancer.

It is a common joke that many drivers have one brown arm due to being exposed to the sun on one side of their body.

I actually had a cancerous growth removed from my right ear almost certainly caused (according to my consultant) by exposure to the sun on that side of my face over many years.

Fortunately it was not invasive - but a warning nonetheless.

Cream up you truckers!

EndlessStruggle

That sounds exactly like my old call centre job, I would also suggest council/ possibly CAB as they all have Social Policy related positions, we have a few Social Policy people at the CAB I volunteer at.

hcb42

Samanthamum wrote: »

What type of call centre should I be looking at then? I would really appreciate your advice. My local council is looking for call centre workers, thought that may be less stressful than customer service.

I work for a VERY big name now. Unpaid toilet breaks. Calls monitored hourly. Targets. Not allowed to hang up on abusive customers. Supervisors on 10p an hour above minimum wage. Sometimes told to go home early if there are low call volumes. Hell on earth.

Generally speaking , if you are working in a big name call centre which involves billing etc...e.g. phones/utilities/banking, these will get the most abusive customers.

For me, easier ones are where you book nice goods - perhaps catalog, but definitely holidays and in my case hotels. in fact in my hotel call centre, we never discussed call handling time or anything like that, there was time to speak to the customer, ascertain their needs and make a booking (without being inefficient, it is their phone-bill after all!) Even insurance is ok in general, if you understand it well enough.

Smaller companies rather than bigger ones, tend to be less sweatshop like, and again local rather than national, so council might be ok on that score...(although perhaps not in council tax department, lol, but I digress)

If you PM me with where you live I might know one or two ideas..

(For context, I worked in snr management in Insurance/Telecoms/Hotel reservations call centres and as I worked for an outsourced company, a myriad of blue chip industries inbound and outbound..)

Paying supervisors 10p an hour above minimum wage and expecting them to lead and manage teams is a recipe for disaster. Fifteen years ago we were paying £16K to our team managers.

Samanthamum

Thank you for all your replies. Have an appointment at docs on Friday to discuss going back on the meds. Have decided job wise that I do not want any call centre work, just had enough of it, and am quite happy to do something a little physical as it will help my weight.

Would like it to be part time (maybe 3 full days?) but no evenings. Would be happy to do maybe a couple of weekend days a month. Any ideas? Would a retail job fit with this?