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My colleague doesn’t eat proper meals. Photograph: Rouzes/Getty Images/iStockphoto
My colleague doesn’t eat proper meals. Photograph: Rouzes/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Should I try to help an unhealthy colleague improve her lifestyle?

This article is more than 5 years old

Have you got a work-related problem? In this series we invite you to send in a short description of your predicament – so that other readers can offer solutions

I have a colleague who has constant health problems, mostly self-inflicted. She has hardly any proper meals (she has told us she doesn’t eat breakfast and that she can go an entire weekend without a meal) but constantly snacks on sweets and crisps, and if she does have anything more substantial it’s a ready meal or a takeaway. She’s overweight and unfit, has frequent headaches and stomach upsets, is prediabetic and now has severe gallstones, none of which has prompted any noticeable changes to her diet. I know her lifestyle is none of my business, but it’s a small team so every time she is absent it creates significant extra work for the rest of us, which is causing resentment. Is there anything I can or should do?

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