catsix, I really hate Prednisone, too. I hate that it’s the only thing that will heal me when I’m sick, but after a decade of on and off use, I have back, hip and knee problems because it’s made my bones brittle. I’m not able to work out as hard as I used to.
I didn’t realize it affects metabolism. I guess that’s one reason why it’s much more difficult to lose weight. I took Phen Fen and did Weight Watchers at the same time and in 3 months I only lost 12-15 pounds, when most people lost at least twice that on Phen Fen, alone!
I’ve been off Prednisone for almost a year now and it’s so hard to lose weight. The first time I was on it 10 years ago, it took me very little time to lose the extra weight. It’s a struggle now, but admittedly, I don’t eat as well as I should, but even when I do, it’s very hard to lose. And when it takes so long to lose, I get discouraged and feel like saying “screw it” and I don’t try as hard. I’ve been at this weight for a year now, despite a couple of serious efforts to lose.
I do know that one serious side effect of steroids can be glaucoma (eye-disease) - at least it increases the risk of getting it. Apparently not all doctors know this - plus most people tend to visit an eye-specialist separately from their doctor.
This is a problem because two other risk-increase factors for glaucoma are having a relative with it, and being severely short-sighted. Most medical doctors might not know if their patient has these two risks - only their eye-doctors are likely to have these details.
Therefore if you do have any of the risk factors, you should doubly avoid steroids. I got this information from my eye doctor a while ago.
ISTM that an issue here is appearance discrimination. For most jobs, it’s improper to select employees based on appearance. Obviously skin color is inadmissible. But, also there a was Hooters case a couple of years ago. And, a long time ago, there was a case prohibiting airlines from hiring only young, good-looking stewardesses.
I think the civil rights community may take a jaundiced view of appearance requirements. This Weight Watchers case raises the question of what the exceptions are to the general rule that personal appearance ought not to be a factor in personnel decisions.
Exactly, december. And in this case, Weight Watchers wants to have as their employees people who have lost weight on their program, and equally as importantly, people who are successful at MAINTAINING that weight loss.
Interestingly enough, Weight Watchers permits its members to circumvent their weight range charts by furnishing a doctor’s note with a doctor’s approved weight range. So that if Member A wants a goal weight of 150, but the WW range calls for a maximum weight of 140, they can still pick 150 as their weight range.
However, in order for someone to be eligible for WW employment, their goal weight must be in the WW approved weight range. So if this lady had NOT worked for WW before, and come to lose weight after being treated for cancer, set a goal weight above the WW weight range - she’d never be able to GET hired. The bugger in this case is that she was ALREADY employed by them.
I don’t know that the issue we are talking about here is appearance discrimination, per se. It may be more an issue of someone being determined to be unqualified to do their job because of a “failure” on their part to do the job themselves. Her job was to lead a group of people in weight loss and she was unable to be successful at it herself.
On the other hand, a psychologist who treats people for depression is able to do his/her job if they are depressed themselves. So I don’t really see a problem with that.
But this WW issue is more about the way she gained the weight back. If it was due to the cancer treatments she was undergoing, then that “failure” was not on her part. It was out of her control. If she failed because she did not follow the plan even though she was in control of her eating/metabolism/whathaveyou, then I can see a reason for termination.
Now, if you want to talk about the way appearance affects a job, we can do that, too.
I’ll use your example of a flight attendant: If a FA is supposed to be a certain weight in order to fit down the aisles, that’s one thing, but if he/she is supposed to be a certain weight to be asthetically pleasing, that’s wrong. How a FA looks does not affect what airline I take or my enjoyment of the flight. If I’m in an aisle seat and I’m getting bumped by someone’s rear or thighs while their serving drinks, that’s going to affect my comfort on the flight to some degree.
Next, we’ll take the Hooters example: When someone is hired at Hooters, they are hired for two reasons–to serve food and to look good in a tank top and hotpants. Someone like me, who’s over 200 pounds CAN NOT work there. So there are some exceptions to hiring based on appearance.