Managing Obesity in the Workplace

Turning Tyrants into Tools in Health Practice, Book 3

Nerys Williams, Griselda Cooper

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN:
  9781315347448
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

"Managing Obesity in the Workplace" comprehensively examines how obesity impacts business and provides examples of action that can be taken by employers to prevent weight gain and facilitate weight loss in their staff. A considered, evidence-based analysis of the extent of the obesity problem reveals how this public health epidemic affects all workplaces influencing fitness to work, sickness absence, discrimination and bullying.Case studies from around the world clearly illustrate the extent of the problem and offer practical, innovative and budget friendly solutions for all businesses, large and small. With a focus on nutrition, physical activity, motivation and education, this book is ideal for occupational health professionals, public health and primary care doctors and nurses, health and safety officers, and nutritionists and dieticians. Organisations promoting workplace health, including sports/exercise equipment suppliers, will find it enlightening reading, as will business owners and managers.

Chapter 1

Introduction: an overview

‘The situation has reached crisis point and current policies are failing.’

TRUST FOR AMERICA’S HEALTH, AUGUST 2005

The Bigger Picture for Business

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), we are in the grip of an obesity epidemic.¹ Put simply, this means that more than 15% of the people in this country, the UK, are suffering from the condition. But obesity is not just a UK issue – it is a worldwide phenomenon which has significant implications both for public health and for business.

Such is the impact of obesity at the individual level that it has been described as ‘the main preventable cause of illness and premature death in the US’, overtaking smoking, for the first time, in 2005.²

Obesity is an important condition, which deserves our attention as workplace health advisors and the attention of business for several reasons.

• 

  It is a very common condition, affecting over one in five adults in the UK and US at present.
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  It is predicted to become even more prevalent over the next decade.
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  It is associated with a large number of other medical conditions, co-morbidities, which cause pain, suffering, reduced productivity and absence from work.
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  Obesity is life limiting – an obese person at the age of 40 years can expect to die seven years earlier than someone of normal weight.³
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  The size, weight and personal dimensions of obese workers have implications for the fit of personal protective equipment and uniforms. Custom-made clothing and masks can lead to increased costs, as can custom-made chairs and workstations. Air travel may be prohibitively expensive if two seats need to be booked for an obese traveller.
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  Because of the prejudice and discrimination shown towards obese people from healthcare providers, HR and personnel professionals and line mangers, businesses may at best lose out on real talent and, at worst, contravene disability discrimination legislation.
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  Overweight and obesity are now so common that businesses have to remain aware that the way they treat their staff may also have an impact on the perception of the business by their customers, many of whom will also be overweight and obese. Recently the media had a feeding frenzy when the human resources director of a health club reportedly circulated a memo on the negative aspects on its staff of ‘larger employees’. Such ‘own goals’ in an industry which targets weight reduction can harm business viability.
• 

  The changing demographics of the Western world mean that there will be older workers in the workforce in future. This is already occurring due to financial and social pressures. Obesity rises with age, so it is likely that the number of obese and overweight workers will also increase.

Changing Demographics

We live in a fast-moving global village with significant demographic changes already affecting the supply of labour and the type of labour.

Rising rates of overweight and obese workers are occurring against a background of:

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  fewer entrants to the labour market due to:
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    falling birth rates since the 1980s
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    workers entering the labour market later, due to longer time spent in education (more people with degrees)
  • 

    increased numbers of people claiming health conditions and incapacity from work and so not being available for work⁴
  • 

    increased numbers of obese children – our future workers. Some businesses are already finding that young new entrants are unfit and unable to carry out physical jobs in manufacturing. The years of physical inactivity have taken their toll and produced new entrants to the world of work who are unhealthier than people 40 years older than themselves.

But there are also greater numbers of people leaving the labour market due to:

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  expectations of early retirement
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  ill-health retirement
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  the natural retirement of the ‘baby boomer’ generation.

Employers may find it difficult to find their ‘usual’ type of worker. They will need older workers and those who have ch...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• About the author
• 1 Introduction: an overview
• 2 The background and scale of the obesity problem
• 3 The medical consequences of obesity
• 4 The workplace implications of obesity: the fit between worker and workplace
• 5 Prejudice and discrimination in employment and healthcare
• 6 Current management of obesity
• 7 The workplace setting: improving nutrition and promoting physical activity
• 8 Workplace design: improving nutrition and promoting physical activity
• 9A Health promotion: work task and workplace redesign and population approaches
• 9B Health promotion: the individual approach
• 10 Legal aspects of obesity and the Disability Discrimination Act
• 11 Further resources
• Appendix 1: Common questions and answers
• Appendix 2: Food labelling
• Appendix 3: Popular diets, past and present
• Appendix 4: Suggested eight-week programme for weight loss in a workplace
• Appendix 5: Suggested healthy substitutions for traditional workplace buffet lunches
• Appendix 6: Examples of nutritional interventions and increased physical activity
• Appendix 7: American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2004 Labor Day checklist on obesity
• Index