Weightism Discrimination in the Workplace

Weightism Discrimination in the Workplace

Comedian Steven Colbert, learned that the healthcare bill, that has been the center of much domestic debate, has an amendment "that mandates lower premiums to people who lose weight" which ignited a classic Colbert's tirade- calling it "pro-skinny legislation" and further commented that the healthcare bill is the "the latest civil rights struggle in America is 'weightism'" ("Stephen Colbert: 'the," 2009). The concept of Weightism is, as Colbert states, a civil rights struggle for those who find themselves overweight, obese or morbidly obese. Weight discrimination, or "Weightism," "occurs in employment settings and daily interpersonal relationships virtually as often as race discrimination, and in some cases even more frequently than age or gender discrimination" and is based around one's weight (Dye, 2008). First used by The Washington Post in 1978, "lookism" is the broader concept that Weightism falls into- the term attempts to refer to discrimination against or prejudice towards others based on their appearance. In modern day society, as illuminated by Steven Colbert's segment and the ABC News article, the term is still highly applicable. Weightism is an issue that many American grapples with on a daily basis as obesity is on the rise. Though weight affects many facets of an individual's life, including their psychological well-being, personal life, among others; but, one place where weight and Weightism does play a significant role is in a person's professional life. Reported discrimination, based on weight, has increased exponentially over the last ten years, approximately 66%, up from about 7% to 12%- discrimination is common in both institutional and interpersonal situations at the workplace (Dye, 2008). Weightism at a workplace can potentially have a detrimental effect on wage or salary increases and promotions and also, the workplace social dynamic for an individual that who is a victim of Weightism.

Foremost, to explore the subject of weight discrimination completely, one must initially explore the stereotypes that obese people endure, including perceived weight controllability by external beings. There are many negative stereotypes that are fueling the so called "latest civil rights struggle," as Colbert had previously mentioned. Many studies, according to the Health Education Journal, have shown that "adults characterize obese people by negative attributes such as lazy, unattractive, unhappy, unpopular and sloppy" (Anesbury, & Tiggeman, 1999). Negative stereotyping of obesity in children was observed in 1961 when children "ranked an obese child last on likeability, behind children with various physical handicaps, such as facial disfigurement and using a wheelchair" (Anesbury, & Tiggeman, 1999). Further research also indicated that children "as young as the age of 3 describe a fat child as lazier, and less attractive, happy, smart and popular" (Anesbury, & Tiggeman, 1999). The negative stereotypes that are associated with obese people are engrained at such a young age, it seems impossible for obese people to distance themselves from this behavior. Negative perceptions of obese people that have been fostered from a young age have certainly carried into adult years, and subsequently into the workplace. The stereotype that overweight people are "lazy" and "sloppy" is definitely one that has a substantial impact at the workplace as these are both attributes that are shunned in a workplace setting. Additionally, another negative perception of overweight people is enveloped in the concept of weight controllability. The issue of weight controllability is also one that contributes to the negative perceptions of obese and other overweight people. Weight controllability is the idea that people can exercise and eat healthy in order to have a healthy weight. The flaw with this idea, that the population at large does not realize that there are a myriad of factors that are not in an obese individual's control including genetic makeup which makes some individuals more susceptible to being obese, ethnicity, height, medical conditions, among other factors. In a study that used three separate experiments to draw conclusions, it seems that "providing information about the uncontrollable causes of obesity and supposed scientific prevalence of traits improved attitudes" (Pulh, Schwartz, & Brownell, 2004). Essentially, individuals are just not aware of enough information about obese people and their condition to make a sound judgment or perception. As illuminated in the study, the more information is known about the uncontrollable causes then the attitudes of the respondents improved as well, which is imperative in order to move forward and eventually combat weight discrimination in the work place. But more importantly, the issue of weight controllability also falls into the broader category of the "fat stigma" that is infiltrating the workplace in modern day society. There is a large public health focus on the "You can Change" or "This is your fault" which is counterproductive to the overall effort to reduce weight discrimination (Parker-Pope, 2011). The negative stereotypes that society fosters towards overweight people are detrimental to the overweight population, and have been contributing to discrimination at an alarming rate .

The negative stereotypes that individuals foster for overweight people in the workplace are expressed through institutional workplace components including wage and salary increases as well as promotions, with more discrimination noted amongst the female gender. Weight discrimination has reached new levels in the workplace and it seems that the larger that a worker is, the more likely they are to be paid lower than others. A study has shown that the "paychecks of obese workers are, on average, about 2.5% less than the paychecks of their thinner counterparts in the same profession" (Jones, 2008). Other staggering statistics that further contribute to the decreased wages of obese people include that, obese workers are "paid $1.25 less an hour over a 40-year career" which means that obese people wind up with roughly $100,000 less before taxes (Jones, 2008). For women, the wage penalty is greater, "as much as 6.2%, according to the study submitted to the journal Health Economics" (Jones, 2008). Women are more likely to be obese because of the body type that women have- naturally, women have a higher fat content than men do. Further issues that may contribute to the uneven pay among obese women are the social pressures that are on women. The women in the media- TV shows, billboards, magazine and other forums- are usually slim which reinforces the idea that women should be slim; but, this also leads to more weight discrimination amongst women because of the strong aversion that society has created towards obese women, thus making them more "lazy" and "sloppy." In addition to the wage discrimination, discrimination can also be seen via another institutional workplace component- that of promotions in the workplace. One individual recounted an instance in which her boss made her lose weight of she would be fired (Dye, 2008). Promotions and lack of stability in a job are discriminations that are experienced in the workplace by people who are overweight.

In addition to the institutional discriminations that overweight people endure, there are also interpersonal hurdles that overweight individuals constantly endure, including the previously noted perceptions as well as other prejudices, which is also more rampant amongst females as they are more likely to be obese than men. The prejudices that the children fostered in the earlier mentioned study are ones that have been transferred or implanted into the workplace- the perception that obese people are unattractive, unhappy and unpopular individuals. The impact of a child choosing an overweight child last in the category of likeability is telling of the larger issue of the interpersonal interactions at work, simply put workers may not like someone because they are fat. It has been noted that among severely obese people, about "28% of men and 45% of women said they have experience discrimination because of their weight" (Dye, 2008). The statistics are certainly shocking but upon further reflection, are they really? With such intensely engrained prejudices and perceptions from a young age, it is difficult to overcome these prejudices. At its essence, a workplace is a playground for grown-ups- the name calling, the snide remarks, the cattiness, the shoving, the pushing all exist but in a different form. Women, as previously mentioned are more susceptible to being overweight, so the negative perceptions and prejudices are exponentially higher for them. Furthermore, since females are viewed as the fairer, or weaker, sex, discrimination is more likely to occur as women are less confrontational and react to situations differently than a male would.