overweight

thebullsback

A friend of my wife is becoming very concerned about how her weight is affecting here ability to do her job ,a job she has done for over 8 year .
Without going into all the tell your wife's friend to lose weight stuff how does the overweight lady stand nowadays (no pun intended ) with the disability side of things .
thank you

[Deleted User]

What sort of job does the lady do x

geri1965_2

Being overweight is not in itself a disability but obesity can lead to other issues which are. Does she have any medical conditions?

thebullsback

she is employed by the NHS and has no documented divisibility

browneyedbazzi

Watch this case:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27809242

tomtontom

What does she expect her employer to do when the cause and the solution to the problem are completely in her control?

Takeaway_Addict

Being overweight isn't a disability (yet...though it really should never be unless it can be medically proven). She does need to take some self responsibility because if she is incapable of doing the job the employer could start looking to dismiss her via capability means.

WHA

If she doesn't get her weight under control, at least to stop putting any more on, she'll have a lot more to worry about than her work. Given time, she will indeed have "disability" in terms of the effects of the almost inevitable diabetes, heart problems, mobility problems, etc., But best to take control to avoid nasty things happening rather than thinking about what she'll expect her employers to do when they happen!

Nebulous2

Employed by the NHS in an active role, or in an administrative role? Just how bad has the weight become? Sometimes for people like nurses there are less active roles, such as working in clinics. These posts can be in high demand, so getting moved into them for health reasons may cause a degree of resentment from some colleagues.

If your wife's friend is already in a less active role and is still struggling with that, then ill-health dismissal / retirement could be a real possibility.

whitewing

thebullsback wrote: »

she is employed by the NHS and has no documented divisibility

That is a shame - if she could divide herself in two, she could do her own job much more easily.

BillJones

whitewing wrote: »

That is a shame - if she could divide herself in two, she could do her own job much more easily.

And if she did it length-ways she could be two people each with a healthy BMI.

OP, why would you even think of approaching this from the direction of not helping her to lose weight? If she does not know how to do this, then get her to speak to her GP, and ask to be given some support.