Former Emirates flight attendant: "I was subjected to three years of weight checks"
"My two or three kilo extra weight didn't prevent me doing my job." A former Emirates flight attendant shares her experience...
Securing your dream job, working at it and feeling truly fulfilled in your role... and then you get called up by management and get told that you need to lose weight.
This may not be the exact way that things went for a former Emirates flight attendant, but it explains the gist of her experience, after she revealed in a recent article that she was subjected to weight checks for three years.
"Duygu Karaman said she was a senior cabin crew member of the United Arab Emirates-founded airline, and that she underwent three years of weight checks after a colleague reported her for being 'too heavy'." (Business Insider)
Duygu, who was said to have worked at the airline for a period of nearly ten years, left her job at the airline in 2019, after having had enough of their constant concern over her weight. According to the Insider
https://www.insider.com/
, they approached her for a comment to confirm her employment but were not successful, but her LinkedIn account revealed that her employment dates reflected March 2011 to July 2019.I was really upset for so long and then I lost my self-confidence. My two or three kilo extra weight didn't prevent me doing my job.
Duygu was said to be a size 8 (UK size 12) when one of her colleagues reported her to be "too heavy", and would need to be placed on a weight-management programme. It is surprising to some extent that we still live in a world that attaches a woman's weight to her performing her duties.
They track everything according to BMI. They give you an A4 piece of paper which just said 'don't eat rice, don't eat bread. Stuff like that. They call it a nutritional department, but they didn't give me much advice.
She described being subjected to unannounced weight checks before flying out. She further revealed that complying with the weight management programme would mean that she would have to keep off the weight for a year before being taken off the programme.
"Karaman, who told the publication she is now retraining as a dietitian at the University of Reading, said that she knew of colleagues who were docked pay and suspended from flying for their own issues regarding the weight requirements." (Business Insider)
The Insider approached the airline for comment and the spokesperson revealed the following: "As a global airline, we treat the wellbeing of our employees with the highest priority, and we believe being fit and healthy, both physically and mentally, is an important aspect in them carrying out their duties safely and effectively.
"We're proud of our colleagues who form Emirates' cabin crew and are working in safety critical roles to maintain the quality of operations and service Emirates is known for."
According to their website, Emirates does include a healthy BMI as part of their requirements. However, approaching these matters in the most sensitive of ways is what matters. We shouldn't make each other feel inadequate.
Living up to the closed-minded physical attribution of what it means to be 'beautiful' isn't teaching the next generation how to be comfortable in their own skin, but rather creating a generation that breathes self-esteem issues.
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