- Dołączono
- 15 Mar 2019
The push for fat acceptance in the US has overwhelmed employers, probably because fatties are really good at pushing. Though obesity often physically restricts a person’s abilities, it is not considered a disability under discrimination laws. And while fat acceptance in the fashion world has opened the door for genuinely talented artists such as Naomi Watanabe and Precious Lee, the revolution has seeped into places where it does not belong.
This is a thread about fatties failing at their jobs because fat. As an anecdote, I’ve worked in both childcare and emergency response, where it seems fatties have a way of climbing the ladder like a spider monkey despite their general aversion to climbing and ladders. When I was lifeguarding, one of my supervisors was 300+lbs, which was really only helpful during rescue training—most of our patrons were about his size anyway, so it kept things realistic. I never saw him on deck once.
More hauntingly, I also recall working at a kindergarten in which the lead teacher was quite literally too fat for his own chair (think 500lb range) and had to get a special chair retractable arm rests because he couldn’t stand for more than a few minutes due to his knees. Now, ideally, you should be fit enough to play with the little tots, as it not only makes them happy but keeps them safe and in line. Functionally, you must be able to respond quickly to emergencies. This culminated in a situation where a young child had a seizure, and homeboy literally scootypuffed his chair over to the phone to call the front office while my at-the-time teenaged self tried to calm nearly twenty hysterical 4-year-olds, move the desks away and phone an ambulance at the same time. What did he do for a good five minutes while waiting for the front office? Why, he sat by the door and watched, of course.
Though not necessarily a new development, it’s also probably fair to say almost all of us had a fat gym teacher growing up (think Abby Lee Miller teaching dance), which I always found delightful. Our high school health teacher was the porkiest of them all, and I am not lying to you when I tell you this quote I distinctly remember from her: “You can eat as much as you want before 7PM, because that’s when your body stops breaking down food.” Right up there with Slaton family logic, that one.
How have fatties goofed up your workplace/customer experience? Have you ever met a fat and wondered, “How did you even get this job?” How would you go about rejecting an application/firing someone on principle of big tubby no runny? What other careers do you think ought to have a weight limit? Should a self-imposed disability be treated with the same dignity as a disability out of one’s control? All this and more on this week’s episode of My 600lb Strife.
This is a thread about fatties failing at their jobs because fat. As an anecdote, I’ve worked in both childcare and emergency response, where it seems fatties have a way of climbing the ladder like a spider monkey despite their general aversion to climbing and ladders. When I was lifeguarding, one of my supervisors was 300+lbs, which was really only helpful during rescue training—most of our patrons were about his size anyway, so it kept things realistic. I never saw him on deck once.
More hauntingly, I also recall working at a kindergarten in which the lead teacher was quite literally too fat for his own chair (think 500lb range) and had to get a special chair retractable arm rests because he couldn’t stand for more than a few minutes due to his knees. Now, ideally, you should be fit enough to play with the little tots, as it not only makes them happy but keeps them safe and in line. Functionally, you must be able to respond quickly to emergencies. This culminated in a situation where a young child had a seizure, and homeboy literally scootypuffed his chair over to the phone to call the front office while my at-the-time teenaged self tried to calm nearly twenty hysterical 4-year-olds, move the desks away and phone an ambulance at the same time. What did he do for a good five minutes while waiting for the front office? Why, he sat by the door and watched, of course.
Though not necessarily a new development, it’s also probably fair to say almost all of us had a fat gym teacher growing up (think Abby Lee Miller teaching dance), which I always found delightful. Our high school health teacher was the porkiest of them all, and I am not lying to you when I tell you this quote I distinctly remember from her: “You can eat as much as you want before 7PM, because that’s when your body stops breaking down food.” Right up there with Slaton family logic, that one.
How have fatties goofed up your workplace/customer experience? Have you ever met a fat and wondered, “How did you even get this job?” How would you go about rejecting an application/firing someone on principle of big tubby no runny? What other careers do you think ought to have a weight limit? Should a self-imposed disability be treated with the same dignity as a disability out of one’s control? All this and more on this week’s episode of My 600lb Strife.
