Asking for co workers weight on medical forms

[Anonymous]

Is this allowed in terms of explicitly asking a co worker to write down their height and weight? I didn't think they could ask that outright.

[Anonymous]

What kind of medical form, and are they asking for your co-worker's data or yours?

[Anonymous]

Just a general one like asking us to list any conditions we have. I was fine with that but not comfortable with disclosing my weight. The form went out to everyone.

[Anonymous]

But why? Who is sending the form and what are they doing with the data?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But why? Who is sending the form and what are they doing with the data?

This. It's important to know the source and the intention to use the gathered data.

[Anonymous]

Why do you need this? Is it for insurance (health/life/etc.) or something like that? I've had to provide that info on my life insurance application but it was sent directly from HR to the life insurance company and not used for anything else.

[Anonymous]

This is the kind of stuff that I just ignore and move on to actual work. Probably some stupid HR exercise.

[Anonymous]

Just told it was needed for the HR department

-OP

[Anonymous]

There is no reason for this.

[Anonymous]

I’ve heard...
If hr can provide this stuff to the insurance company, and if say 95% are very healthy, they can get discounts.

They feel that pretty much everyone is healthy, and they can save money by sending this info.

IMO it’s prettt unethical for the insurer to float this idea.
-what if there are a lot of health issues? (Do they charge more?)
-lots of personal information shared directly to HR and insurance is uneccesary and risky.

I went along with mine a few years ago. Wasn’t thinking of the personal risk because i was devoid of any medical issues.

Afterwards.....HR announced the reason and that they had saved the company money.

[Anonymous]

Your HR department is full of idiots. If they want to have you do this, they should have you send the information directly to the insurer. I was asked to fill out such a form and return it to my HR guy. It asked how many abortions I had had (zero) and whether I had ever taken an anti-depressant (I had). When I objected to returning the form to him, he smirked and asked if I had "bad back" or something.

[Anonymous]

But how is that “personal information”? I have eyeballs. All I have to do is look at you and I can guess your weight fairly easily. If you are fat, it’s not a secret. That’s like refusing to disclose the color of your hair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But how is that “personal information”? I have eyeballs. All I have to do is look at you and I can guess your weight fairly easily. If you are fat, it’s not a secret. That’s like refusing to disclose the color of your hair.

Not a good example because you can hide your true hair color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your HR department is full of idiots. If they want to have you do this, they should have you send the information directly to the insurer. I was asked to fill out such a form and return it to my HR guy. It asked how many abortions I had had (zero) and whether I had ever taken an anti-depressant (I had). When I objected to returning the form to him, he smirked and asked if I had "bad back" or something.

I did this at my first job and looking back, I think it was totally insppropriate to have to list conditions for a coworker to see. It was a very small company. I wonder if there should be a policy or pushback about dealing directly with the insurer.

[Anonymous]

Can't you just lie on these forms?