You are responsible for hiring one person for an office job (i.e., so physical aptitude has no bearing on job requirements), and you have to choose between two people that are absolutely identical (don’t fight the hypo!) with the following sole exception: one is obese and the other is of average weight. Also, you must CHOOSE one or the other–you can’t flip a coin or ask someone else or anything like that.
Which one do you choose and why?
Regardless of how true this may or may not be, assuming the candidates are identical in every way, I would choose the non-obese person only because they would have a reduced risk of many health issues so they might be there more.
Fair? Maybe not, but there you go.
If they are both identical in qualification, or so close that there is no practical difference, I will pick the one whom I judge will most benefit from getting the jduge. If one is employed and the other’s been looking for a job for months, I’ll pick the unemployed one. If both are unemployed and I know how long they have been unemployed, I’ll pick the one closer to losing their unemployment benefits.
Rand, you really needed a third option in this poll.
Well, obviously the obese one will be jolly, and thus get along better with the staff and clientele.
Sorry Randy, I’ve been in this position and I did flip a coin. It’s a perfectly acceptable hiring technique.
I’m not sure that’s really in keeping with the spirit of the thread. If the candidates are identical in every way then they’ve both been employed/unemployed for the same amount of time, have the same sick family member they need to care for, have the same number of children or children on the way.
I think you really need to choose in order to be fair.
Can we be sure the obese guy is the less healthy one? If they’re identical in every possible way except for weight, they must have the same eating habits as well. I think it’s pretty clear that the skinny one has a tapeworm.
Accepting the hypothetical as being water-tight and their weight is quite literally the one and only thing that separates the two candidates then this is the only logical decision I can see. There is a very slim chance that the obese person will suffer from some weight-related illness or condition that causes them to miss work that the average weight person is not prone to. So from the point of view of what is best for the company you would have to go with the average weight person.
In reality you would not come across such a situation. Since we’re in hypothetical land, I’ll hire the hot one and hope for an office tryst to spice up my dead end tax attorney life.
Athena* knows I’ve authored more than my sware of pointless hypothetical polls hereabouts, so I shan’t criticize Rand for his. But since he didn’t specify exactly what identical means in this context, I will assume he meant that they tested equally, had similar educational backgrounds, and so forth; employment was not mentioned. If he wants to specify that, he can. And if he does, I’ll say I’ll pick the one I interviewed first; clearly one or the other must have come in first.
Meh. It’s annoying when people try to weasel around the options in your polls and it’s annoying when you’re doing it now.
There is a simple A or B choice and trying to stretch logic into a bizarre shape to avoid making a choice is just dumb. If you’re going to do that, you might as well not answer, 'cus you’re not answering anyway.
I didn’t vote in the poll, because I can’t answer the question as posed. And I try to always offer the Fool of a Took! You left out <blank> option, if only to give people the chance to insult me. 
I’ve been there. The obese person ended up with knee problems, bitched when the elevator was broken for the day, needed a special office chair (really wide), and many medical appointments during work days. I would not hold these things against the person if this person wasn’t like this as a result of their choices. Lunch was always high calorie fat laden foods rather than more healthy fare, with a preference for fast food and milk shakes. Yes, I just wrote that.
This person also filed a worker’s comp claim because of the knee problems. The thing is, this person was about 350 pounds, at 5’ 6" in a receptionist job. Very little walking with no lifting other than an ink pen and a telephone. So, are the knee problems a result of the working conditions, or the extra 200 lbs of fat? Who pays?
The thing is, this was a very nice friendly person. However, given the scenerio as laid out in the op, I’d hire the skinny person.
Humm - well fair enough then. Honestly, I suspect that Rand gets insulted enough around here without adding that as an option (and not always because he’s earned it).
All other things being equal, I’d hire the obese / female / black / gay / handicapped / short . . . person, because she’d have to be twice as good to be considered equal to the other person.
Of course that’s not always true, and in reality I’d find some reason to hire one or the other.
I’d hire the obese person because, hey, the thin person will find something else. Since most people don’t like fat people, the obese person probably needs a break.
I make both of them do the “Chippendales” dance from the SNL skit with Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley and whichever one rocks it out the most, gets the job.
The poll options are too binary as posed. I would probably base my decision on my subjective feelings about their personalities, intelligence and attitudes. That’s what interviews are for. Those are characteristics that go beyond itemized qualifications on a resume. I honestly don’t think it would even occur to me to consider weight.
Yeah, but suppose you interviewed them both, and they seem equally (ab)normal, (ill-)fitted for the office atmosphere, or whatever else particulars about their personalities or mannerisms you would gather from an interview. The only difference as far as you can tell is one is obese and the other is not.
What do you do? What do you do? I pick the non-obese person, because I hate fat people. Serious answer: I don’t want to be bothered with their health issues.
I hire the thin person, because right now I manage a not thin person and it’s a pain in the ass.
There are things she is supposed to do (like go upstairs and post the mail every day, or go down the hall and put things in everyone’s inboxes, or get the heck up and go to the front desk and help the dang customer instead of asking them to come around to her desk) that she doesn’t do because it’s physically difficult for her.
She also keeps everything she might ever need right there at her desk so she never has to get up. But they’re things that everyone else needs too and we just have to go use them at her desk. And if I have paperwork for her she wants me to bring it to her rather than just slip it in her inbox.
And forget ever mentioning out loud that I’m feeling fat today.
le sigh.
So I definitely hire the thin person.