Need advice from someone in the HR field

[Anonymous]

I could really use advice from someone in Human Resources.

I have a woman on my team who has an eating disorder (not eating). I have had other team members express their concern to me about her lack of eating (not eating for several days). The woman with the eating disorder has openly told team members that she doesn't eat, feels fat, etc.

One of the team members has now voiced her concerns to me.

I don't want to pry and get involved with her personal situation, but I do care for this person and want to make sure she's getting any support she needs. What would you advise so that I don't violate any legal boundaries, while also making sure I'm taking proper steps to ensure she is okay. It has not impacted her work at this point in time so I'm inclined not to do anything unless she seeks me out and then I can refer her to HR for EAP support.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

This is personal and off-limits. Your intentions are good but they could come back to haunt you.

[Anonymous]

I'm not an HR person but had the experience of working with an alcoholic. Everyone knew about the problem but nothing could be done by management until to affected work performance.

[Anonymous]

OP here - would your advice change if you realized this person had fainted while on an out of town work trip (not at the client site), but at the hotel.

I'm guessing the fainting episode was most likely due to not eating for 5 days.

[Anonymous]

Can you document the fainting episode, Because it's going to take a list of negative effects on work performance to get HR to ask her about her health. Talking about not eating shoukd go on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could really use advice from someone in Human Resources.

I have a woman on my team who has an eating disorder (not eating). I have had other team members express their concern to me about her lack of eating (not eating for several days). The woman with the eating disorder has openly told team members that she doesn't eat, feels fat, etc.

One of the team members has now voiced her concerns to me.

I don't want to pry and get involved with her personal situation, but I do care for this person and want to make sure she's getting any support she needs. What would you advise so that I don't violate any legal boundaries, while also making sure I'm taking proper steps to ensure she is okay. It has not impacted her work at this point in time so I'm inclined not to do anything unless she seeks me out and then I can refer her to HR for EAP support.

Thanks!

Well you won't be violating any legal boundries I mean you're just notifying HR of your concerns. This could however affect the TM's job because HR will document what you told them and if the anorexia affects the TM's performance they will document that and keep documenting til she gets the boot. After all, most companies HR believe that Company > Employees. EAP is run by the company as well. I would suggest she get external help from her doctor. There are various doctors in the DC area that specialize in eating disorders.

[Anonymous]

This is hard. An eating disorder may qualify as a disability under the ADA.

Are any coworkers friends with her outside of work?