Discrimination in the Workplace

In the article, “Appearance and Weight Inclusion Issues in the Workplace” by M. June Allard examines weight and appearance issues in the workforce. According to the article, good looking people are viewed by society as happier, smarter, and more successful than their homelier coworkers. Society has placed such an emphasis on attractiveness that it is deeply ingrained in our culture; which can lead to discrimination issues in the workplace. Allard points out that there are numerous studies which prove the cultural obsession with beauty has influenced hiring and promotions in many different occupations. Studies have also shown that those exhibiting cultural ideals of beauty make more than their less attractive counterparts, and the least attractive workers face the most amount of appearance based discrimination. Appearance discrimination can go both ways as attractive women are being excluded from male dominated occupations such as engineering and construction. While research has shown that shorter men are making less than their taller counterparts.

These discriminatory practices have faced legal action as employees fight back against unlawful terminations and prejudicial promotion practices. Despite legal action most companies have clearly defined appearance standards which can include uniforms, personal hygiene, make-up, and hair styles. Appearance bias is legal under federal law and does not fall under regulation by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; which does oversee religious, gender, age, pregnancy, disability, and racial discrimination in the workplace. There are numerous companies who have been able to avoid federal oversight in their hiring practices including Hooters and Southwest Airlines. Many client facing jobs are at high risk for appearance discrimination as most companies want to increase sales and their company image by hiring attractive people.

Despite the continually expanding waistline of the majority of Americans cultural values regarding weight have led to prejudicial practices in hiring, education, housing, and healthcare. Overweight people are subjected to socially acceptable stereotyping and face public ridicule often for just going about their daily activities. Stereotypes for overweight people assume that they are lethargic, depressed, uneducated, daft, and undesirable. Allard cites numerous studies that prove obese workers are less likely to be hired, promoted, or attain executive levels with a company. Obese employees are subjected to more disciplinary actions against them, receive less in compensation, and pay higher insurance premiums when compared to their thin coworkers. Promoting this weight juxtaposition is an American culture that promotes an ideal of thinness being equated with attractiveness constantly featuring emaciated starving models and actors as the norm while the majority of Americans fall into the overweight and obese category on the body mass index.

There are very places in the United States that address the problem with weight discrimination with legislation; however the federal government offers no protections to their overweight and obese citizens. Obesity is not considered a disability therefore it is not offered the protection of the EEOC, and obesity is not considered as criteria for disability by the Social Security Administration. The problem with weight discrimination is it is often tied to other illegal forms of discrimination. Larger women are subjected to more bias than overweight men. Affluence positively correlates to healthy eating habits and thinness; while poverty is associated with a higher incidence of obesity.

Organizations can counteract the high cost of obese employees many different ways. By building an onsite gym this will encourage employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle and save them the burden of paying for a gym. Offering workday fitness classes would encourage employees by allowing them to use part of their workday to get healthy. Mandating that all meals in the employee cafeteria be under a certain number of calories and giving a stipend for those employees who eat in the cafeteria. Mandating that five minutes of every hour employees should stand up in their workstation and stretch would prevent overweight employees from feeling bias, because everyone does it and it would be a bonding experience. Organizations could contact local farmers to sell their produce on the job site. Offering incentive programs for employees to slim down and posting success stories around the office would help overweight people to feel supported in the emotional journey toward health. Organizations can do many things to reduce the costs associated with their overweight and obese employees.

Full text of the article can be found here