My former law school classmates and I often complain about how much our clothes have shrunk since we graduated. When we saw the results of the recent CareerBuilder survey indicating that lawyers and judges are among the likeliest to report weight gain on the job, we wondered whether survey takers simply failed to consider shrinkage as an option. Surprisingly, it wasn’t even listed among the top reasons for the "perceived" weight gain, which were:
• Sitting at a desk (or bench) most of the day – 56%
• Eating lunch at one’s desk – 54%
• Stress eating – 37%
• Dining out too often – 23%
• Skipping meals because of time constraints – 19%
• The temptation of the office candy jar – 17%
• Pressure to eat food brought in by co-workers – 10%
The study included more than 5,700 workers across multiple industries. But in light of the evidence presented above, one has to wonder whether the study was statistically valid. If it were up to me, I would run the survey again, with the following two categories listed as options:
• Gradual shrinkage of clothing
• The clothing industry’s trend toward making shirts and pants (e.g., skinny jeans) smaller
SBM Blog will cover this issue again if and when the new results are reported. In the meantime, consider washing your clothes in cold and air drying.
Posted by SBM staff
