To tell or not to tell your work about WLS

[colleenfrances 0]

I'm curious, did you tell your place of employment about your WLS? I work in a very tiny place with 8 people total. Being the only fat one of the bunch, I'm nervous if I should tell them or not because I'm not sure if their reactions will be supportive or negative. If I'm going to be having surgery and out of work for possibly 2-3 weeks, they will need to know what's going on. I'm not sure if lying/making something up would be best or not. Did you tell your work what was going on? If yes, What did they think?

[EagerPenguin 159]

I told my workplace, all of my coworkers know and everyone that I've interacted with about it (and there have been many people) have been super supportive. I think you have to consider if your coworkers would react more negatively to your surgery or to being lied to. I don't know your situation well enough to make a firm recommendation, but I do feel strongly that lies are hard to keep up with. Especially since you'll be following a special diet now, and will be losing weight steadily, it's going to be hard to hide the change.

[shelly420 59]

I told some of my coworkers and 100% regret it.

[EagerPenguin 159]

3 minutes ago, shelly420 said:

I told some of my coworkers and 100% regret it.

What happened?

[VSGnewguy 164]

I'm with EagerPenguin, I've been very open about my upcoming surgery and so far people have either been directly supportive or at least, non-judgmental. This surgery is becoming more and more common and I think a lot of the stigma is gone. Also, when others see you come back on a special diet and dropping a lot of weight, they are probably going to think you've had WLS anyway whether you tell them or not. But I understand some people are far more private and choose either to tell a half truth or just disclose nothing at all. In the end, it's all about what is most comfortable for you.

[BigAussieGirl 162]

I told my manager I’m having surgery and left it at that. I don’t discuss my medical procedure with colleagues or acquaintances.

Each to there own.

[Rainbow_Warrior 996]

3 hours ago, colleenfrances said:

I'm curious, did you tell your place of employment about your WLS?

I'm retired (19 months) from my life-long job of 42 years and drawing a comfortable pension.

But I have a skill set which keeps me in offers of work almost continuously. I currently have FOUR to SIX employers at any one time.

My major employer of those depends on me a lot BUT I just told her I needed to take about 10-12 consecutive days in mid-October for some urgent stomach & hernia surgery.

None of my colleagues needed to know. (I only see them one or two evenings per week between assigned work in my own space at the local office.)

I returned to work after a fortnight off. Another casual employee picked up my workload and my pay.

It was a blip on the radar.

Work has been in summer/xmas shutdown since Dec 14th. I resume on Jan 29th or 30th.

I'll just tell 'em I've been busy exercising and dieting over the summer. (Both true!)

[Stella S 612]

No way. If anyone had asked I.panned to say genital implants My work has boundaries and is not tolerant of knowing specifics. I took medical leave. Did the same for plastics 2 years later.

[Rainbow_Warrior 996]

6 hours ago, shelly420 said:

I told some of my coworkers and 100% regret it.

I used to work with 35-40 people five days per week, every year.

There would have been two, maybe three, that would've been fine with the information ... BUT, on the other hand, there were 16-20 who are intrusive and/or negative people.

I took the "better off telling no-one if you can't tell everyone" choice.

7 hours ago, EagerPenguin said:

I do feel strongly that lies are hard to keep up with

Touche. Other than my wife and a couple of family members, only my best man and a friend of 32 years were told. I'm filtering the TRUTH for everyone else ... "stomach & hernia surgery" is 99.99% true for my secrecy purpose.

Everyone knows that i swim three to four-and-a-half hours most days. Everyone knows I'm calorie counting, eating smaller meals and only having two glasses of wine per week.

I'm 33kg (73 pounds) down in 5.5 months ... just over half that in the 12.5 weeks since surgery.

My changes are reason for praise and awe at the pool. Getting some positive verbal responses to the trimmer me.

[Rainbow_Warrior 996]

5 hours ago, BigAussieGirl said:

I told my manager I’m having surgery and left it at that. I don’t discuss my medical procedure with colleagues or acquaintances.

Most people's preferred position!

[Mattymatt 491]

9 hours ago, colleenfrances said:

I'm curious, did you tell your place of employment about your WLS? I work in a very tiny place with 8 people total. Being the only fat one of the bunch, I'm nervous if I should tell them or not because I'm not sure if their reactions will be supportive or negative. If I'm going to be having surgery and out of work for possibly 2-3 weeks, they will need to know what's going on. I'm not sure if lying/making something up would be best or not. Did you tell your work what was going on? If yes, What did they think?

If I were the boss, I know how I would act. I would be positive and supportive of you because a healthy employee is a productive and happier one. I also know that if you are healthier, my insurance costs go down so I would be rooting for you on that front as well. If I really needed your position filled, I would simply go to a temp agency for the time that you are out. Temp agencies can be expensive but the expense can be deducted on income taxes. That being said, I cannot really predict how others would react because the business world is often about the bottom line and rarely considers matters beyond profit and loss. I would advise being honest - even if the outcome is not what you hope for, you do not compromise your integrity.

It's funny, last week I had an interview where I really did not care one way or the other how it would go - if these guys passed me up, there would be plenty of others to go to. I interviewed for a security guard position and turnover rate is so high in contract security, as long as you haven't committed a felony and you have a warm body with pulse, you'll get hired. I am coming off of disability and did not want to go back the career I was working. Anyhow, at the interview, I told the hiring manager I would be getting weight loss surgery just for giggles but he hired me anyhow. I'd like to think that he actually gives a damn about me and my health but I'd be deluding myself.

[Rainbow_Warrior 996]

1 minute ago, Mattymatt said:

If I were the boss, I know how I would act. I would be positive and supportive

Great post.

We all need employers of that ilk.

Sadly, such Enlightened bosses/owners are a small minority.

[Sosewsue61 3,185]

Telling depends on a big risk of the unknown opinions of people that probably have very differing personalities, backgrounds, baggage, chaos of their own that you know nothing about - it is unlikely to find much support in that stew. Work is work and nothing more (rinse, repeat). The only thing a supervisor needs to know is that you are having a medical procedure that requires medical leave and that is it - there are privacy laws for a good reason.

Do not look to co-workers for support or validation - get that from people that genuinely love you and have your interests at heart. Good luck.

[orionburn 1,023]

I opted to be open/honest with my boss. Mainly because if I had complications and/or needed some special requests once I came back I wanted him to know. I kept it to only a few people at work, however. I didn't just go around telling everyone about it. Not that I gave a crap of what anyone thought about. Normally I keep things pretty private about my personal life.

That being said keep in mind that as long as you are covered by FML you can still get time off due to it being related to your surgery and still keep it under wraps. Being in that small of a work environment definitely has its own set of pros/cons with something like this.

[abefroman329 704]

I told a few people I was having surgery, but didn't go into specifics. If anyone asks how I lost weight, I plan to tell them. No sense in lying about it.