Blog

Continued from Part 1

The bottom line 

The monetary and fiscal repercussions of obesity are another weighty element to this contentious topic. Notwithstanding the billions upon billions of tax payer’s money poured into the NHS to remedy the myriad health afflictions associated with obesity, there is also a cost for the employer… and so, I apprehensively refer back to the phrase that launched a thousand trolls: why I won’t work with fat people. 

First and foremost, allow me to clarify; I refer to the extreme end of the scale, morbid obesity. Being fat is a subjective concept and we can all fluctuate; I know all too well the struggles of being overweight having undergone my own personal weight loss journey. And… whilst I know I will be accused of lacking in empathy, my stance comes from a financially motivated perspective, having run businesses myself and been an employer. 

In a study by the American Journal of Health Promotion it was found that, on average, a morbidly obese employee costs an employer more than $4,000 per year compared to an employee within a normal weight range. A different study conducted by Donna M Gates et al. found that obesity resulted in a 4.2% health-related loss in productivity. 

Furthermore, research into absenteeism in 2010 found that: “Obese employees take significantly more short- and long-term sickness absence than workers of healthy weight”. It concluded that “there was a positive linear association between employees’ body mass index (BMI) and the number of days’ work missed due to sickness absence.” The results evidenced that obese individuals take, on average, an extra four days off a year, totaling nine days in total, compared to the five days taken by their slimmer colleagues. 

From personal experience, I know that when I was carrying a lot of excess fat, I was sluggish, less dynamic, and generally operated at a slower pace. My greatest ever hire was a confessed ‘bigger guy’ he was an asset to my company, a close friend to this day and I’d hire him again in a heartbeat, but he was far from morbidly obese. Small businesses feel the brunt of staff absence and decreased profits and even more so in this tumultuous economy. 

Black heart

The blog post that sparked the global media frenzy was certainly provocative but at its heart, it contained a message of caring and of trying to inspire positive change. I stand by my belief that we all need to take responsibility for our physical condition. Do I take back my opinions? No, I don’t. I feel extremely honoured to hear from those that don’t ask me to commit suicide. The people who have got in touch to let me know that they are starting the journey back to better health as a result of my divisive interview makes the whole experience worthwhile. Was I tempted to be censored into silence because of some of the more belligerent reactions and threats of violence? Absolutely, but ultimately I believe that we must correct our crash course towards ill-health, by any means necessary. Whatever your reaction may have been, it’s undeniable that it shed some light on a life-threatening issue that needs urgently addressing. Never has it been more crucial than in the midst of an epidemic that indiscriminately targets the obese.

I’ll leave you with an extract from that infamous blog, which I mean from the bottom of my cold, black heart:  

“Confidence and self-worth should always be nurtured and encouraged in every guise and I’m by no means condoning fat-shaming or bullying, but equally let’s stop validating the result of toxic and harmful behavior patterns… Let’s replace our misplaced kindness exonerating this damaging condition with catalysing change and providing help and encouragement to conquer this disease of modern times.”