In the Navy, we have to meet weight standards. It is not hard, provided you work out and eat sensibly. As well as make healthy lifestyle choices. Recently, a Texas hospital started enforcing weight standards during its hiring of new employees:
What some call concern over weight in the workplace–and others call weight discrimination–has been around for years, but a Texas hospital has stepped up the fight.
- Citizens Medical Center (Victoria Texas), Weight Discrimination
Citizens Medical Center in Victoria, Texas recently instituted a policy of refusing to hire anyone with a body mass index of more than 35, which means a 5-foot-10 man who weighs 245 pounds would have a BMI of over 35, the hospital’s cutoff. A 5-foot-2 woman would be over the cutoff at 195 pounds.
Is this legal? I think at a health-care facility, they should enforce standards. And the ones quoted above do not seem impossible to meet. I would imagine the work there to be physically strenuous. No?
If it is true that a person weighs more at sea level, the fattys will need to head for the hills.
While I’m all for encouraging people to maintain healthy lifestyles, the BMI is a poor choice to, in my opinion, base “healthiness” on. I’ve been a serious weightlifter for years, and at 5’8″ my BMI has always placed me squarely in the obese section, even when my bodyfat, taken by various means, is in the low teens. Many of the people you see in a gym are classified as obese under the BMI chart, even though they’re “ripped and fit”.
If a person’s livelihood is going to be directly affected by a measure of their “healthiness” then a measure less “fuzzy” than BMI should be used.