Doesn't this strike you as being dichotomous?

Question

The hospital I work at does all kinds of things to help our employees quit smoking (i.e. free classes/support groups, discounted smoking cessation tools--gum, patch, etc.). They also punish employees who smell like smoke while they're at work, and use only designated smoking areas OFF hospital property, punishing those who don't.
Yet this health care organization does little to help and never punishes the numerous morbidly obese employees who work there, when their condition is clearly as great of a health risk. I think it looks peculiar to have doctors, nurses, therapists, and others that look like they've never driven past a donut shop without stopping.
I'm not saying the employees need to look like athletes, but they should at least look like they practice what they preach. I think it would lend more credence to their status as health professionals. Your thoughts?

The Only Solorose -- oh, waah!
Spoken like a true lardbutt.

Jampot -- they write you up, by putting a form in your personnel file saying that you've been warned. It happened to me, and it's total bullcrap.

Answer 1

I agree, kiddo. Double standard all the way.
They ought to give the fatsos a year to get their health together, or get fired. Physician, heal thyself--as the saying goes.
If you're like me, that would really make your day. It would make mine.

Answer 2

Well, morbid obesity is probably just as much an addiction as smoking is, and doesn't practically endanger anyone (except perhaps the immediate family). You do have a point, though. It's amazing when you go to Europe to see how many fat Americans there really are, and health-care professionals do have an obvious responsibility beyond what can be expected of the general public. Then again, so do priests, politicians, and others in public service: and heaven knows there's room for improvement -- or at least acknowledgement of that fact.

Still, legislating people's behavior is always difficult and even a dangerous thing in itself. I once read a moving biographical piece about a man who went to Austria after the Anschluss and was horrified to see a favorite teacher of his busy during his lunch-hour cleaning the sidewalk in front of his office with a toothbrush, as had become expected by "good citizens". Such is the paroxysm of 'Political Correctness" -- well-being should be a choice, not an obligation.

Incidentally, a recent study in England showed that a person who cohabits with another who smokes 20 cigarettes per day inhales the equivalent of two cigarettes per MONTH. Note the effects of the "no-smoking in bars" legislation we see everywhere: big increase in litter on the streets, blocking of sidewalks, etc. The idea was supposedly to protect the health of workers who do not have the choice to avoid smoke. But even if the English study was fallacious: who is holding a gun to the head of people and forcing them to be bartenders? Pretty soon we will have people standing in public toilets ringing a bell if you don't wash your hands "properly". In hospitals, that might make sense. The problem is people, particularly present-day Americans tend to consider that their preferences should be law.

Answer 3

Have you approached the hospital regarding some sort of employee discount at a gym? Does the cafeteria serve healthy food, and have people asked for it? Things won't change until people start asking for change.
I wonder how the hospital punishes employees who smell like smoke. What happens?

Answer 4

I totally agree! There is one nurse at the neurologist I go to who is frightening she's so big. She's got to weigh somewhere around 350-400 lbs! She takes everyone's blood pressure and weight and that seems kind of ridiculous to me! She's got to be a health catastrophe just waiting to happen.

I'm shocked at the unfair emphasis on smoking as the greatest evil on the planet. It's completely absurd. It's gotten to the point where people feel it's okay to treat smokers as if they're lowlife drug pushers that should be run off the premises! If only every one's personal habits and addictions were as visible as smoking, that sort of thing would stop INSTANTLY! LOL

Oh! BTW, both my parents smoked and my Mom smoked during all her pregnancies. None of us has any health problems and none of us has asthma. Neither of them has/had lung cancer. My Dad died at 65 but he never even had a cough and he smoked since he was 9. Go figure!

Answer 5

I definitely see what you mean.

I would definitely believe a doctor more if I could tell they followed what they tell me to do.

At the same time, at least being morbidly obese doesn't hurt other people by them breathing or anything ( the same way second hand smoke hurts others)

I still think they should at least give discounts on gyms or weight loss programs or something though.

Answer 6

One can stop smoking, one cannot so easily stop eating. You might try being less judgmental of these people and a bit more insightful.