Supporting Employees with Eating Disorders: A Guide for Employers
Lurking beneath some outwardly healthy individuals, there lie troubling disorders that many Americans never take into account. Eating disorders come in all forms and intensities, from Anorexia Nervosa to Bulimia. These disorders can be severely detrimental to a person’s health and will leave a lasting impact on them, their friends, and their family. Here we will look at the stats and facts and try to present some non-inflammatory actions you can take as a leader to improve the quality of life for an employee with an eating disorder.
The Facts
To help someone, we first need to know some basic eating disorders and some symptoms of them:
Anorexia nervosa:
This is a serious disorder that can be life-threatening. Symptoms include low body weight, fear of gaining weight, and sometimes thinned hair and brittle nails due to a lack of nutrients. Individuals with anorexia will severely limit their calorie, fat, and carb intake in addition to intense exercise even when feeling unwell or fatigued. The starvation that occurs leads to low body fat, which will cause them to often be colder. The lack of nutrients or malnourishment can also cause an irregular heartbeat.
Binge-eating:
Binge-eating is a large intake of food all at once, feeling not in control of what you put into your body. This includes eating while not hungry and also guilt and shame after a binge. Individuals with this disorder may do fasts or avoid food for long periods of time as “punishment” for a binge, though they will fall back into a binge after some time. However, these binges are not followed by purging or somehow getting rid of the calories or food taken in.
Bulimia Nervosa:
Bulimia is similar to binge-eating; however, individuals with this disorder will follow their binges by purging. This is often gagging themselves to throw up, taking diuretics or laxatives, or excessive exercise. Besides unhealthy eating patterns, vomiting after a binge can have horrible side effects. Tooth enamel decays due to stomach acid, gum disease, and further than that, any kind of purging can cause osteoporosis, heart problems, kidney problems, and more fatal conditions.
It is also important to note, that eating disorders can occur in anyone. They are not directly linked to demographics such as race, gender, or age. Anybody in your workplace could have an eating disorder or develop one, that is why it's important to take the right approach.
The Stats
The sad news is that many Americans will deal with an eating disorder sometime in their life—9% of the US, or about 28.8 million citizens. A further 10,200 people will die in the US every year to an eating disorder, which is about 1 death every 52 minutes. About 13% of women over 50 years old currently have an eating disorder, and so do 6–8% of all adolescents. In addition to this high number of adolescents, in the past decade, the number of children under the age of 12 being admitted to the hospital for this has risen by 119%.
These are troubling statistics, which raises the question, How do you support an employee who may view themselves as overweight despite being underweight or someone who binge eats?
Economic Impact
As any disorder can, eating disorders have a large impact on the American economy. Beyond caring for the employee with an eating disorder, there is also the fact that a disorder harms productivity and makes a company less functional in the long term and short term.
The productivity losses as a result of eating disorders in the US cost companies and government organizations 48.6 billion dollars in 2024 alone. These disorders don't only hurt individuals and families, but will also hurt a business. By helping these individuals you not only help them but also get a return on investment for your business. However, always be sure to prioritize the individual's health over the company, as this person's health is more important than a return on investment.
This is just one other reason why it is so important to help individuals with eating disorders and help guide them to a healthier lifestyle.
GLP-1 Medication
Recently rising in popularity are GLP-1 medications. These offer seemingly quick solutions to weight loss and body image issues, however, it is important to trust the medical professionals hired at your workplace to recommend these if seen as appropriate and to look deeply into some of the effects such as:
- Vomiting
- Nausea
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
Lisa Catanese, ELS
What You Can Do to Help
Before you begin the process of helping, it is important to ask yourself, Is there an institution or department at your workplace that already can help this person? If so, you may not be the right person, and you may want to raise a concern with that department. Further than that, you may not be the right person entirely. However, if you find yourself being the right person to approach this problem, remember, that you want to help this person, but they may not see it this way.
In your approach, always remember these things:
- Use “I” statements, such as, “I can see this is a challenge; do you need anything from me?” These can help avoid becoming accusatory, which is the last thing you want to do while helping someone.
- Show that you care.
- Remember to listen and take their emotions into account.
Do Not
- Do not tell them to eat or not to eat; this can quickly stir emotions.
- Do not compare them to others.
Now, realistically, this will not be a one-and-done event. If you know this person well enough, or if they come to you, it will be checking up on them often and helping them stay on track. Don’t expect things to change immediately; be sure to go about this at a slow and safe pace, and be sure to know whether you are qualified or to pass it on to a more qualified individual.
How Frankly Can Help
Supporting employees by giving them the tools to manage their eating disorder can have numerous benefits for an individual but also for your team's well-being and your business as a whole. Frankly’s is a responsive, personalized solution with a comprehensive mix of services, and includes effective employee outreach that ensures those services are utilized. Our wellness services solution can complement an existing health benefits plan, and build out a robust support system for your employees.
To learn more about how Frankly can support your team's wellness book a 15-minute demo.
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