Overweight workers say they're often overlooked

Overweight workers say they're often overlooked
By Diane E. Lewis, Boston Globe Staff, 9/21/03
Bigger may be better - but not always in the workplace.
Globe Staff Photo/Janet Knott

Deidra Everett, secretary of the New England Chapter of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, believes there have been a few changes in society's view of the overweight. In interviews and on the job, workplace prejudice against the overweight is as prevalent today as it was a decade ago despite expanding American waistlines, according to specialists.

''Size generates subtle biases as well as blatant ones,'' said Myrna Marofsky, president of ProGroup, a Minneapolis diversity consulting firm. ''You might hear, 'If she would just lose 25 pounds, she would have a better chance at that promotion.' ''

Marofsky said overweight workers are often overlooked for promotions and uninvited to client presentations even when they've done all of the work. Add other biases such as race, gender, ethnicity, and age to that situation and the issue can be magnified tenfold, she said.

But neither Massachusetts nor federal antibias laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, protect obese or overweight people from workplace discrimination. The exception: when a charge of appearance or size discrimination is related to age, sex or racial bias, categories that are protected by state and federal laws.

''This is one of the only groups where an employer could say, 'We don't want fat people,' and get away with it,'' said Massachusetts Representative Byron Rushing. ''Fat people are still targets. Professional comedians can still make fun of them, and fat jokes are still being passed around.''

Rushing, a Democrat who represents Boston's South End, has introduced a bill to amend the state's antidiscrimination law to include protections against height and size bias. The bill is now before the Joint Committee on Commerce and Labor, but Rushing is doubtful that it will become law. Negative stereotypes about overweight people are just too ingrained, he said.

Protests by groups like the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance as well as a flurry of recent lawsuits have led to greater awareness of the problems the overweight face in the workplace. Some of the lawsuits seek to create new legal ground by arguing that obesity ought to be seen as an impairment under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Take the case of David Warner of New Haven. On July 23, the 350-pound ex-foreman filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Connecticut alleging disability discrimination in the workplace. The lawsuit said that Asplundh Tree Expert Co. in Watertown, Conn., laid off Warner in 2001 and then promised to bring him back to work in January 2002. But it never did.

''He called after the New Year, and the company would not return his calls,'' said Connecticut attorney Gary Phelan, who represents Warner, who is in his 40s. ''Then, a former co-worker told Warner that the company got rid of him because he was overweight and it thought he was going to die on the job. Now he's working as a bus driver.''

Phelan filed the lawsuit under the ADA and Connecticut's Fair Employment Practices Act, one of the few statutes in the country to bar employers from discriminating against workers because of their size. Other states with comparable laws include Washington and Michigan.

Michael Neubert, an attorney for Asplundh, said his law firm is requesting that the Warner case be dismissed.

''One of our claims is that Warner did not file under the Connecticut statute in time,'' he said. ''We feel it is too late for him to go back and remedy that. Also, his versions of the facts are not sufficient to establish a claim under the ADA or the Connecticut statute.''

In a separate lawsuit, Joseph Connor, also of Connecticut, claimed last year that McDonald's Corp. rescinded a job offer because of his size. This month, the fast-food company settled under terms both sides have declined to disclose. The plaintiff, who weighs close to 420 pounds and is 6 feet 1 inch, had alleged in court papers that the burger chain promised he could start work as soon as a specially ordered uniform arrived. But the job never materialized.

Sixty-one percent of Americans are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Of those, the CDC says 35 percent are moderately overweight and 26 percent are obese. The findings, from a National Health and Nutrition Examination survey, sounded an alarm when they were released in 2000, but the hubbub did little to change poor perceptions of overweight people or spur the creation of new laws.

While there is little data available detailing the extent of size bias, Deidra Everett, secretary of the New England Chapter of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, believes there have been a few changes in society's view of the overweight. ''Society has changed its image a little when it comes to smaller large people,'' Everett said. ''It is more accepted now that a woman can be a size 12 through 18 and still be fit. Also, in the media, the whole extreme leanness [trend] is not as popular as it was six or seven years ago. So, the media is trying to show that curves can be OK.''

At most workplaces, she said, little has changed. Everett, who, at 36, weighs 460 pounds and is 5 feet 10 inches, knows firsthand. She said prospective employers have pursued her aggressively over the phone, and then suddenly changed their minds after meeting her. Stunned by her appearance, the recruiter will scan her body, pausing at the fattest part, and then look away.

''Eventually, they'll get back to your face and give you this nervous smile that says, 'Oh, dear!' They don't know where to look. They become flustered and there is not a lot of eye contact,'' she said. ''I can't understand how people can be so judgmental without knowing who I am. It makes you feel terrible.''

Neither the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination nor the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission track size lawsuits, but employment lawyers believe the filings are up. They say companies would do well to establish guidelines or policies banning such discriminatory treatment in the workplace.

Marofsky, of ProGroup, expanded the company's services this year to include a training forum on size discrimination. The firm, which has done other forms of diversity training for clients like Deloitte & Touche, General Mills, and Saks Fifth Avenue, hopes to use its videotaped vignettes to show corporate clients how overweight people are treated at work and to heighten awareness of the problem.

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at [email protected].