Being pretty and good at work are not mutually exclusive

Are you pretty... good at work? Well I'm sure you are very good at what you do, but are you pretty and considered attractive? Well, it seems that succeeding at work is not just about how good you are at what you do but how good-looking the company thinks you are.

- Birjees Hussain

It seems that the world of work is a bit like a modelling agency where your appearance speaks volumes much more than how good you might be at your job.

People who are perceived to be more physically attractive are likely to get promoted more, receive higher salaries and be pushed to more customer-facing roles such as public relations. Often such people are hired to be the face of the company. The old stigma of being pretty was that pretty people were dumb. Hence the classic phrase, dumb blonde. But new research findings suggest that better looking people are considered more intelligent and trustworthy.

If that is indeed the case then think about this. Only some fields have more attractive people in them than others. In fact, those in the technical fields such as science, technology and engineering, the percentage of highly attractive people is lower. That's not to say that attractive people are not in these fields but that the numbers are lower. Therefore, does this mean that those fields value capabilities more than appearances?