Aussie Workers Blame Job Monotony, Drinking Culture for Weight Problems

Australian workers are blaming their jobs for their weight problems. A study by Weight Watchers released on Tuesday said the employees particularly cited the job monotony and culture of drinking as the main culprits for their expanding girths.

The report said 52 per cent of the survey respondents pointed to lack of support from their workplace and almost 75 per cent explained their expanding body size to lack of exercise in the workplace.

The survey of over 1,000 Aussie workers identified South Australia as the state with the worst employee weight problem with 63 per cent of its workforce considered as overweight. SA was followed by Queensland at 59 per cent, Western Australia at 58 per cent, New South Wales at 56 per cent and Victoria at 47 per cent.

While HR experts said the company is partly responsible for the physical and psychological wellbeing of their staff by providing a healthy and safe workplace, health and wellbeing is still the main responsibility of the individual employee.

"You can't tell people how to live their lives but in the staff cafeteria you can provide healthy alternatives, you can encourage people to take rest breaks, go for a walk at lunchtime, do all those things," The Herald Sun quoted Peter Wilson, the president of the Australian Human Resources Institute.

The survey said 34 per cent of workers in WA and Victoria were most likely to eat more due to their boredom at their jobs. In SA, the same reason was cited by 30 per cent of respondents, and 28 per cent of respondents in Queensland and NSW.

The study was released a day after KPMG warned that obesity would make diabetes the leading cause of death and disease in Australia in the next 10 years.

So far, 25 per cent of Australians or five million are classified as obese.

The projected rise in diabetes in the country would cause the increase in cost of treatment to $8.6 billion by 2033 from the current $2.8 billion.

Henry Cutler, head of health economics at KPMG, estimated that the number of diabetics in Australia is expected to reach 1.6 million from 900,000. Most of the new diagnosis would be type 2 diabetes, he told the Diabetes and Sustainable Population Forum in Sydney on Monday.