We have been talking about a robust recruitment strategy in the last two articles.
Before we get into today’s topic just a quick digression. In a few months we will be in the year 2020. So many people are looking forward to it and I wonder why. What do they have planned and why the excitement for 2020? I don’t know the answer but what I know is that, it is round the corner and it is going to happen whether or not you want it or are prepared for it. The conclusion is to find out why people are excited, if you are not and then get excited yourself. If for nothing else but the fact that it is a new year.
This is the summer time even though technically why we are talking summer in Nigeria baffles me. Anyway many of the affluent have skipped town away on holiday and those not so affluent have switched off their brains.
I guess this is post half way through the year and people are tired. Until things get serious again in a few weeks I want to talk about some Human Resource problems that are not obvious but loom large. Today we are going to be speaking about how Obesity is a thief , killer and destroyer.
I have been traveling recently and have finally realized that obesity is now officially an epidemic of staggering proportions. There are many causes of obesity. Trauma, stress,over indulgence, unclear job descriptions and expectations, staggering un-delegated authority, ignorance, non-existent capacity building, take home pays that don’t take employee home, poverty and so on to mention just a few.
Obesity starts off as a liar. It usually hides initially when we are overweight. We don’t réalisé that if we don’t nip it in the bud quickly, overweight will become obesity for sure.
Then it starts to lie. “Oh this is how my grandmother was so it is genetic and there is nothing I can do about it. Oh only vain people keep their weight down. They just are so narcissistic. Oh everyone needs a little flesh or else you don’t look good and when sickness comes you have no buffer. I only eat this once in a while so it is okay. (Would you deliberately eat rat poison just because you don’t eat it often) I have to enjoy myself, what is life about if I can’t eat what I want. I am now a certain age and I will look terrible if I don’t have some meat on my bones. It is the natural progression of life. Well at least I don’t have high blood pressure or any of those ailments only a little arthritis. I can still wear girdles and look nice. I can still find my size in readymade clothes so I am not so big.”
The biggest lie is that “there is nothing I can do about it, after all I have to eat”. Meanwhile obesity ensures we continue to do obesity to ourselves. The more we do obesity to ourselves the more obese we get. Doing obesity is just piling on the weight.
Obesity is a thief because it steals our health. By the very nature of obesity you are already unwell. You wake up tired. You may not even be able to sleep. You may not breathe well. Your heart is being strained. You are a sitting duck for almost every chronic ailment. Living with obesity is like crossing a road without looking at the traffic lights or looking to see if a car is coming. You can get hit at anytime by any vehicle.
Obesity is a thief because it has come to steal our joy and our peace. Many don’t even know what life without obesity is because they have lived with it for so long, they have come to believe this is life.
Obesity steals our future, our freedom our dreams, our jobs, our aspirations, our hopes, our families, our spiritual lives, our prosperity, our sanity ,our money ,our mojo ( for want of a better word) our resolve ,our friends and can I stress it enough our good health.
As if that was not enough, Obesity is a killer because many of these chronic ailments by their very natures cannot be cured until obesity is cured. So with obesity we will eventually die from one chronic ailment or the other.
Another lie is that “after all we are all going to die from something”. However even while you are alive what is the quality of the life you are living?
Obesity destroys. After it has lied, it steals then kills and finally destroys. Am I being too dramatic? Families are ruined by this thing. Businesses are ruined. To cut a long story short , lives can be destroyed by this thing that you have to carry around with you. When you are obese you are dragging that load with you anywhere and everywhere you go. It reminds me of the story ‘The Pilgrim’s progress’.
Obesity kills organisations, kills initiative, kills creativity, kills resolve and indeed anything and everything in its path.
The world needs a cure.
Guess the two major people who aid, abet and enable obesity? The medical world and the food industry. That seems to leave us between a rock and a hard place. We seem not to have any choices. The medical world make tons of money from the fact that people are obese and have chronic ailments . The food industry turns chemicals into food and keep us addicted and living an almost comatose controlled life.
What can organisations do and why should they care? The absolute truth is that you get out of your employees only as healthy as they are. We consider so many things when we are recruiting and appraising but we don’t consider the health and total wellbeing of our staff.
Until we hear one of them has cancer we are most unconcerned about their wellness. Paying them a salary is not enough. The first thing to do is to admit that there is a problem and it can scuttle your business. I have written this article to show that even the owners of the business and senior staff are not immune from the epidemic. Every business owner or senior staff needs to recognize this epidemic and point it out to their staff. Set up programs to help staff so they don’t fall victims and help the victims to get free of the disease.
More on wellness next time we meet. Obesity is very tricky and cunning and comes because of many reasons. Welcome to the month of August where many battles will be fought and won.
Olamide Balogun
