Body Type Discrimination

uction and Description
There are many types of different forms of discrimination in the workplace that affect a person’s chances and opportunities in employment and during the hiring process. One form of discrimination that one would not really think would affect a manager’s decision to hire someone is a person’s body type or physical appearance. However, it has been proven that weight discrimination has been a very large influence in the hiring of many individuals and definitely affects these individuals’ opportunities, and their emotional states as human beings. Every company must know their obligation and requirements when hiring people. The employer and the company must ensure that these requirements are legitimate and reasonable. If they
There are a few things employees and employers could do to help reduce body type discrimination in the workplace and avoid stigmatization. if an employer’s attributes deviate from the typical, normal, or preferred attributes of others in a situation may be stigmatized and this stigmatization will result in various negative outcomes (Bell, 478).
First, an employer should show empathy to the individual. Being obese is not a conscious decision made by the individual. It may have been the result of something more complex and an employer should take that into consideration. Second, an employer should encourage a healthy culture and work environment. They can do so by providing healthier food choices in the cafeteria, stocking the vending machines with water and healthy snacks instead of soda and chips and allowing a reasonable amount of time for workers to eat. Thirdly, an employer can provide a wellness program and allow overweight employees the time flexibility to be able to use these programs. Fourthly, an employer should not create competition in the workplace in any way that would result in a discriminatory act against body type (Immen,
People that have not met these physical requirements have been left out, and have not been given the same opportunities as their counterparts thus leaving a further gap in the hiring of individuals. It has become a vicious cycle where being obese is looked down upon and then in turn obese people do not succeed and are further discriminated against with the reasoning behind so being that they are obese and not “normal”. To truly put an end to this cycle society as a whole must stop putting so much value on media portrays as normal and beautiful such as the Vogue advert. The Vogue ad is one of thousands of media that surround society shoving their stereotypes and generalizations about physical appearance into everyone’s minds which only hinders people’s efforts to create more equal environments in everyday life as well as the workplace. Diversity means more than race and gender, it also means the difference created for the sub-groups within those groups and creating a diverse workplace means taking into account all stakeholders and members that may be part of these