Update: T-Mobile has provided us a statement.
Toxic and abusive workplaces are sadly all too common, and you might have even been part of one at some point or another in your life. But have you ever had your boss pressure you to lose weight? In one group of T-Mobile employees, this is apparently happening—and before you ask, yes, this is a textbook workplace policy violation.
While the story below has not been confirmed by T-Mobile, the evidence appears genuine and we have decided to cover the situation.
Forced Weight Loss Group Chat
A T-Mobile manager in an unknown position has reportedly initiated a mandatory “Weight Loss Group” on WhatsApp. According to an employee account, the manager created the group without prior team consultation on the subject of weight loss—he “came up with the idea on a call and then created the group.”
The employee is apparently in a remote work-from-home position, and only meets in-person around four times a year:
Context- We are a fully remote team, meeting once a week with cameras off and seeing each other in person maybe four times a year… We were having our Monday meeting… He comes up with this idea for us to have a weight accountability group. Two people of the 9 on the team said yes. Everyone else stayed quiet. A few hours later he is tagging us in a brand new group that he made for weight loss. He was very specific about feet in picture on the scale.
Partial comment from said Redditor
Participation, described as non-optional by the anonymous Reddit user’s account, requires team members to post pictures of their weight, including their feet on the scale, twice weekly. The manager allegedly enforces this by tagging employees in the main work group chat as a reminder to submit their weight photos.
An attempt by another coworker to negotiate the frequency of these “check-ins” down to once a week was also reportedly refused by the manager.
This would be okay as a sort of wellness challenge as long as it’s agreed upon by all parties involved, and opt-in, but it doesn’t seem to be the case here.
The employee noted that weight loss had never been a topic of discussion within the team previously and highlighted that five of the nine team members are already in good physical shape. So if what’s being described here is true, this manager is trying to keep checks on employees’ body weights and see if they’re going down or going up twice per week. Very weird stuff.
Some of you with knowledge of how T-Mobile works know that some stores and locations are third-party. However, the user confirmed that they are a corporate employee, meaning T-Mobile is directly responsible for the actions of the manager.
Other Inappropriate Actions By The Same Manager
The employee also makes claims of other inappropriate incidents made by the same manager, like indecent comments to a female employee. The employee’s attempts at reporting the group were not successful. They reportedly went on to report the group to HR, only to, quite disturbingly, get ignored and even blocked by a handful of high-level T-Mobile executives.
Not that long ago my manager told a female colleague, “My curtains match my drapes,” after she commented on his curly hair. HR confirmed this but took no action. She requested to be under a different manager. The “integrity” team simply told her she could apply for other roles. Given the nature of our work, reassigning her would have been easy and required little effort. She still reports to him with him having full knowledge of the report.
Part of the same comment
A Bad Idea Made Worse
While it doesn’t look like the said manager was forcing employees to lose weight by threatening them with actual work consequences if they didn’t, an argument could be made that it still constitutes pressuring and borders on harassment. Requests or initiatives from a manager, even if presented casually, often carry an implied expectation of compliance, even if it’s a non-work thing.
Having a friendly weight-loss competition, one that everyone agrees to beforehand, is one thing. In this case, though, the group was seemingly non-optional, and the manager was singling out people in actual work chats to tell them to post their weight. And that’s not even mentioning how weird and invasive it actually is to require photographic evidence of weight.
The manager is using their position and active reminders (tagging) to strongly urge employees into an activity they might otherwise not participate in. If it’s not harassment, it’s still weird and overly personal.
This story doesn’t have a full resolution yet, but we have contacted T-Mobile for a statement on this matter and received the following response:
T-Mobile does not monitor employee weight or require weigh-ins. We addressed an isolated incident related to a non-company sponsored communication that was brought forward by the poster who we believe is a former employee.
T-Mobile
