The price of being pretty at the workplace

The moment she broke the news that she had bagged a job in the finance sector, her friends were curious. After all, she was a public relations executive handling lifestyle clients, a job that ‘went with a pretty face’. When 22-year-old Yashi Parmar made the switch, the common reaction was, ‘What are you going to do in finance?’

Parmar is not alone. While a pretty face turns heads, the attention comes at a cost. Eliose Thomas, a 27-year-old travel executive, believes that a beautiful face definitely gets instantly noticed. “To an extent, it gives you an edge over colleagues," she says.

But it’s a double-edged sword, she says. “You commit one mistake, and the ‘if you are pretty, you got to be blonde’ tag becomes instantly applicable to you.”

Wardrobe consultant Varsha Bhawnani’s garment export business often requires her to travel extensively to meet buyers. “For my business, presentation is key,” she says.

But there is a flip side. Bhawnani recounts an interaction with a client who assumed her work skills to be inversely proportional to her good looks. “I had difficulty getting him to take me seriously. After the order was placed, even before the date of delivery, I had to put up with a lot of ‘oh, I anyway don’t expect you to send the delivery on time’ and ‘pretty faces aren’t the key ingredient to good business’ type of comments,” she says.

What a woman wears and how she carries herself invariably get looked upon as indicators of her attitude towards work. Fitness and etiquette trainer Sabira Merchant points out that there is a thin line between dressing smartly and dressing provocatively.

“If you wear short tops and low-waist jeans, you are obviously sending the wrong signals. No one will take you seriously,” she says.

Sociologist Nandini Sardesai feels that it’s the jealous and the chauvinistic who measure a woman’s success on the basis of her beauty alone, disregarding her skills and merit.

Sardesai emphasises that as it is, women have to try a little harder to prove their mettle in their chosen field of work. And if a woman is blessed with a good face, then the effort needed is a bit more.

“I think, in India, we are still in a process of transition," says Sardesai. "We are yet to look at a woman as an entity in herself.”

The beauty conundrum in the workplace has other dimensions. There is no denying that some women use their looks to manipulate a situation to their advantage. Like Parmar says, “I know a few women, who by virtue of their looks, flirt with seniors and date their bosses.”

She, nevertheless, cautions that a date with your boss will only take you so far; you can’t expect professional growth after a romantic liaison with a superior.

Young entrepreneur Tamanna Singh, who makes collages, videos, souvenirs and scrap books, seconds Thomas’s view. Singh, who claims to have never made a resume for an internship or a job interview, admits that her looks and communication skills have always done the trick. “Looks do form a big part of your first impression," she says. "Everyone wants a pretty face during client meetings.”

Women often admit that they are judged on the basis of their looks, but believe it’s also they who decide how much leeway they give others to question what their skills and potentials are.

For freelance writer Khushboo Sahrawat, beauty is more a bane than a boon. “I think it is a disadvantage for working women because co-workers often get intimidated and fail to judge her real potential,” she says. Sahrawat also feels that it largely depends upon the woman if she wants to impress people with her looks to get work done. “It’s the woman who decides for herself.”