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The Diversity Of Health And Disability Within The Workplace

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Introduction Diversity in careers is a wide category that encompasses a variety of fields and issues. One that is prevalent in every career and work setting is the diversity of health and disability within the workplace. All careers challenge employees with different requirements both physical and mental. It is important to understand how these challenges can affect the employee and common trends across a diverse group. To accomplish this, we must be well informed and understand what factors are most influential. Employee health and disability, whether physical or mental, can be detrimental in its life long career effects. To identify how to promote change we must first address the main issues.
Health and Disability The real truth is …show more content…

We live in a society that values physical appearance and it can be a major influence when applying for a job. “One hundred forty million people aged twenty and older are currently employed in the United States. Twenty-nine percent of them are obese … with obesity comes and increase of work related limitations” (Robin, 2004) shows the fact that obese people are associated with work limitation. This could be caused by the existing stereotypes or by discrimination in the workplace due to societies view. Employers often see non-obese applicants as a better choice than obese applicants due to limitations that could potentially follow (O’Brien, 2012). Another problem in the workforce is that “nearly fifty percent of Americans have one chronic health condition” and this can be related to workforce limitations (Pamela, 2011). This hinders workers and creates a common negative trend that disabilities are not welcome in the workforce. Workplace health and protection exist as well. Companies and businesses develop different programs to try to promote positive health. Two common categories exist and these are health promotion and health protection. The goal is to “protect workers from occupational injury and illness ranging from basic safety training to the use of protective gear, work organization, and safety enhancing modification” that better the workplace. By doing this,

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