Flabbergasted. And ticked off. Etc.
I can’t blahg about what I want to blahg about today even though I am totally, absolutely, utterly, pissed off. It has to do with the lack of progress that we seem to have not made since I was a kid young woman looking for a job back in the last dying days of the 3-martini lunch (late 70s). I eventually found a job through connections and *struggled* to make my own way until after the first year or so when the christian conservative “technical supervisor” quit (thank you God!) for a better job or whatever. And then. I settled in and learned everything I could and I *think* I was a valued employee. Whatever I looked like. I know that my young, thin, blonde appearance was a detriment in the early days. Eventually, folks started to understand that there was a blasted brain underneath there.
And so… Why the heck hell do we care now in the 21st century, no less, what people look like and why do people who are my age and have been through the goddamn trenches still counsel [extremely intelligent] young women to wear makeup and show cleavage. Oh man, I try not to show cleavage these days. I would love to be young, thin, and blonde again. I DO wear makeup. I use Cover Girl to cover ancient acne scars and I use eye-shadow and Maybelline mascara. Yay for Maybelline!!! I doubt that anyone I work with cares about that. I think they mostly don’t use makeup and our discussions about business casual clothing revolve around trying to not wear the same outfit all week. We are focused on our work and not our appearance. And I keep a pair of business casual shoes in my desk.
Fer Kee-reist, let’s hire people for what they can do and not what they look like. In the job that I have now, people are very much valued for what they can DO rather than what they look like. Why can’t we all actually talk to the folks who apply for jobs instead of trying to judge them by appearances.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
AHEM–I know exactly what you mean and feel the same. Along with the appearance thing and not being perky cheerleader type, my older job hunter has the misfortune to be looking for a job in Seattle, where people from my town are considered hicks and hillbillies.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Many members of society have uncritically absorbed the attitudes portrayed on TV & now web-based media. Our fellow citizens too often take their learned cues from the flat screen rather than living, breathing, 3D people….
November 13th, 2009 at 9:36 am
My dad always said that me and Suzie would make “cute little secretaries”, and it always pissed me off. I never liked conforming to society, like having to wear a plaid skirt to school for 9 years. We were excited when in 5th grade you were allowed to take the upper half ( the straps and back ) off your dress and just have the skirt. Ask K. Farnell for measurements to the floor when you kneel. In 6th grade they told us we could wear red white or blue socks and tops, without a pattern, solid only. We were excited, we had some freedom. As an adult, I understood wearing scrubs for medical jobs, and safety gear, but thank god I never decided to work in an office, where I had to buy the “in” thing. Do customers or anybody ever see you there? I remember being pulled aside in the nursing program by my instructor and asked why I was wearing tye dye skirts and sweats to class for an exam. Whaaaat? They said to dress comfortably… so I did. It was an exam, she said the bright colors could be distracting to others… oh… poop.
I would love to lose weight and get a boob job so my clothes would fit me better and I would feel better about how I looked to myself. To hell if anybody else doesn’t like it. Luckily I never had to get stuck in an environment where they had to have “meetings” at work to tell us that our clothing was not good enough for somebody snooty, with expensive tastes… hey, you got dressed and didn’t show up naked, right? Do they have dress down Fridays where everybody wears something nice, but not court appointed???
Next time they have a meeting, make a motion for Tropical Day, Sweat Suit Day or Hiking/Sports Day on Friday, you have lots of stuff for everybody to wear…. “TOGA!!!”