When Your Image Hurts Your Career
Good Looking = More Money? That’s Right. This is the real world. Most people are prejudice.
Being overweight or sloppily dressed is worse for your career than being a poor performer. So manage your weight, and manage the image you project at work, and you’ll do wonders for your career. According to a 2005 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, good-looking people make more money than average-looking people for doing exactly the same work.
Consider that there may be some rationale behind it. If you’re overweight, you’re probably not exercising every day. But regular exercise increases peoples’ ability to cope with difficult situations in the workplace and might even make people smarter. And the same self-discipline we use to make ourselves exercise regularly and eat in moderation carries over into other aspects of our lives. People who exercise regularly were found to be better at time-management and more productive than those who don’t. It’s sort of like people who have messy desks: The perception is that they’re low-performers, poor time-managers, and not clear thinkers. This might not be true at all, but the only thing they can do to overcome the perceptions of their coworkers is clean their desks. Here’s something else: Dress like you care. Building a strong brand for yourself is the only way to create a stable career in today’s workplace.
