Weight-Based Discrimination in Healthcare Workplaces

INTEGRATIVE SEMINAR ON CIVIL RIGHTS

1.         Weight-Based Discrimination in Healthcare Workplaces

2.         Introduction

a.         People have an inherent right to freedom of expression, association, and fair treatment at the workplace.

b.         Employers are forbidden from discrimination based on race, gender, color, religion, or physical appearance.

c.         Henceforth, laws enacted protected people from various kinds of workplace discrimination, including age for people under forty years.

d.         However, despite the legislation, almost sixty years later, workers still suffer from discrimination.  

3.         Body Paragraph 1

a.         People have an inherent right to freedom of expression, association, and fair treatment at the workplace.

b.         The Civil Rights Act that was formulated in 1964became a pivotal tool against employment discrimination.

c.         Protection of workers from unfair discrimination is a constitutional duty that all employers must adhere to.

d.         These assumptions are based on a study where over seventy percent of respondents picked these qualities about their perception of overweight people.

4.         Body Paragraph 2

a. The cause of this discrimination is people’s unguided perception of overweight and obese individuals.

b.         The ideology that overweight people are lazy, lack self-discipline, are emotionally unstable, and are less competent will be the beginning of solving this challenge.

a.         For example, another survey done by Gallup pool in Joslyn & Haider-Markel (2019) indicates that prejudice led respondents to assume negative things about overweight people.

b.         The assumptions and prejudice make them target people who hold an unfavorable opinion about overweight people.

5.         Body Paragraph 3

a.         The law to protect workers from different kinds of discrimination already exist. Implementing them has become the challenge that many workplaces are facing.

b.         To end the discrimination against overweight people, institutions must form an ethics department responsible for training workers on the workplace culture and expected conduct

c.         A study by Barra & Singh (2018) noticed a lower wage caliber for overweight people

d.         Many of the cases were associated with more absenteeism for health checkups or sickness, which attracted the employer's action.

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a.         It is evident from these surveys that discrimination against overweight individuals exists

b.         A study by Gerend et al. (2021) states that the obesity-related cases of absenteeism result in $9 billion annually.

c.         An unhappy people, people that get picked on for no other reason than their weight and that used to deny them equal pay, opportunities or to harass them, cannot be productive individuals, not that they cannot be productive, but 'because someone is out there to make their life work experience terrible' Barra & Singh (2018).

d.         Still, without proactive action against discriminators, this problem will go on among workers in different capacities and will cause detrimental effects on the workforce in the healthcare sector.

7.         Body Paragraph 5

a.         Stereotyping of people began during the industrial revolution.

b.         The ongoing discrimination of overweight individuals is so deep-rooted that a Gallup poll analyzed by Gerend et al. (2021) survey indicates that at least 43% of Americans do not support the overweight’s higher insurance premiums

c.         However, for health insurance and employers who want to promote healthier lifestyles, incentives can be introduced to reward those who keep health BMI throughout the year.

d.         Thus, for the insurance companies, instead of charging more premiums for the overweight and obese, which has a negative effect, the method of incentives and rewards can motivate people to live better and make lifestyle changes

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a.         While most of the discrimination during this time was based on race, productivity was important. The world, especially America, wanted to dominate; anything that hindered the process was therefore harbored. 

b.         The implications of weight-based stigma and discrimination are easily ignored. Obese and overweight people are often blamed for their condition.

c.         The widespread campaign for a healthier lifestyle to avoid being overweight makes those who exercise to stay fit feel entitled to their position and opinion of overweight people. Joslyn & Haider-Markel (2019) assert that being overweight is highly discouraged by healthcare systems makes it worse for a worker in a hospital to be overweight

d.         This is viewed as a case of a careless person to their health and, by extension, may not care well for a patient's welfare. This salient arrogant assumption by some people makes this kind of discrimination be ignored in the healthcare system.

9.         Body Paragraph 7

a.         A recent study by Phelan et al. (2021) indicates that weight-based discrimination has occurred in 66% of workplaces in the last decade.

b.         This compelling social issue makes it essential to put some measure to protect workers from societal stereotyping and prevailing attribution overweight people encounter at the workplace.

c.         In addition, there is a need to end the justification for this kind of discrimination.  

d.         Discrimination by employers based on weight denies healthcare workers the chance to progress in their careers, harness opportunities, and do their work in the right way. The discrimination may even affect their emotional state.

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a.         Without proper legislation, it is imminent that these discriminatory criteria can be used to propagate other kinds of discrimination. Therefore, discrimination by weight is a disparate claim, and any attempt to protect the classes mentioned above of people alongside other overweight workers in the health sector.

b.         For example, if employers can institute a weight barrier for their workers, then people of color and women, especially those above 27 years old, will be the most affected.

c.         This can be a title VII case or an ADA claim because a disability is a physical impairment that limits major life activities

d.         Cases such as Corey v. new jersey of people being terminated because they are overweight raise questions if weight should be a protected class for consideration during discrimination charges

11.       Body Paragraph 9

a.         People naturally assume all people who are overweight overeat and are lazy, which is not the case.

b.         Powroznik (2017) argues that social meaning is assigned cause, and blame is passed on to ensure the assumed cause takes the responsibility. Little is done to understand the issue from the victim's view

c.         Intervention for healthy living, nutritional education, and support for people to get quality care for a certain disease that causes weight gain, such as Alzheimer’s, should be advocated

d.         Consumption of healthy and cheaper food, exercise, and health checkup is a far better way of handling weight-based problems than discrimination of such workers.

12.       Body Paragraph 10

a.         Stereotyping of people began during the industrial revolution.

b.         While most of the discrimination during this time was based on race, productivity was important. The world, especially America, wanted to dominate; anything that hindered the process was therefore harbored. 

c.         This is viewed as a case of a careless person to their health and, by extension, may not care well for a patient's welfare.

d.         This salient arrogant assumption by some people makes this kind of discrimination be ignored in the healthcare system.

13.       Body Paragraph 11

a.         Weigh-based discrimination do not have a financial gain. Instead, it leads to psychological implications and poses more risks to these people's health

b.         In the health sector, weight-based discrimination results in disparities in the ability to be productive since patients who discriminate against healthcare workers based on their weight deny them a chance to serve and fulfill their duties.

c.         Discrimination by employers based on weight denies healthcare workers the chance to progress in their careers, harness opportunities, and do their work in the right way

d.         . The discrimination may even affect their emotional state.

14.       Body Paragraph 12

a.         The feasible method of solving discrimination by weight is to make legislation as Michigan did.

b.         Ramos et al. (2017) argue that weight issues affect women more than they do men

c.         The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act includes weight as a protected class doing any discriminatory act to a worker due to their weight illegal and punishable by law

d.         Cases such as Corey v. new jersey of people being terminated because they are overweight raise questions if weight should be a protected class for consideration during discrimination charges

15.       Body Paragraph 13

a.         Phelan et al. (2021) argue that studies indicate that race affects the weight of people

b.         For example, more African- Americans are more overweight compared to peers of Caucasian origin. The race is also determined by gender and a class of people.

c.         The dismissal of people who sue their former employers for discrimination based on weight makes one wonder if there is no need to do more against this trend of discrimination and lack of protection by the legal system

d.         Discrimination by employers based on weight denies healthcare workers the chance to progress in their careers, harness opportunities, and do their work in the right way. The discrimination may even affect their emotional state.

16.       Conclusion.

·         To overcome the weight-based issue, campaigns against unhealthy lifestyles are important. However, these concerns the risk that overweight people should not be used to discriminate against them at the workplace.

·         The dismissal of cases of discrimination on a weight basis needs to be taken seriously.

·         While many states do not classify weight as a protected class, these workers are productive and add to the GDP of the U.S. As such, they must be protected and their well-being mentally as well.

·         There is a need to look at the psychological implications of discrimination based on weight, and the possibility that is discrimination on a weight basis, if allowed to go on, will be used to kick women and people of color out of their position since they are the most affected by the issue.

References

Barra, M., & Singh Hernandez, S. S. (2018, October). Too big to be seen: weight‐based discrimination among nursing students. In Nursing forum (Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 529-534).

Gerend, M. A., Patel, S., Ott, N., Wetzel, K., Sutin, A. R., Terracciano, A., & Maner, J. K. (2021). A qualitative analysis of people’s experiences with weight-based discrimination. Psychology & Health, 1-18.

Phelan, S. M., Bauer, K. W., Bradley, D., Bradley, S. M., Haller, I. V., Mundi, M. S., ... & Croghan, I. (2021). A model of weight‐based stigma in health care and utilization outcomes: Evidence from the learning health systems network. Obesity Science & Practice.

Powroznik, K. M. (2017). Healthism and weight-based discrimination: the unintended consequences of health promotion in the workplace. Work and Occupations, 44(2), 139-170.

Ramos Salas, X., Alberga, A. S., Cameron, E., Estey, L., Forhan, M., Kirk, S. F. L., ... & Sharma, A. M. (2017). Addressing weight bias and discrimination: moving beyond raising awareness to create change. Obesity Reviews, 18(11), 1323-1335.