A few days back I was sitting with my colleagues talking about anything and everything under the sun, when out of nowhere came up the topic of good looks and how it affects our pay package. While some were of the opinion that looks really do not make much of a difference; majority voted in favour of this belief as one of my colleagues said, “Good looks do make a good first impression and yes it can help you bag a good package, but later on you cannot get away with just your looks… you have to prove yourself. It’s the work that will determine what package to retain you on rather than your looks. And no, you cannot wriggle out of work by virtue of your good looks. You have to put in an honest day’s work.”
But here another co-worker interjected, “I believe that good looking people do not only get good paycheques but can get away with less work. You see it’s not about how much work these good looking people do or don’t do, but what other people do for them. The levels of acceptability are lowered for people who look pleasing,” continued Raza. “I mean, if I had a pretty secretary who made a thousand spelling mistakes per page, I’d be more likely to explain things to her gently. If she was not good looking, however... that’s another tale.” Cruel as it might sound that is how most of us feel and react in a similar situation.
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The above mentioned findings sure do reveal it’s a “beautiful world” after all. So why not try to work on what we have already been bestowed with. Here, we share some steps to look better and enhance your outer beauty.
Instead of going for these radical beauty solutions, you can focus on simpler tips to elevate your looks, as suggested by marketing and brand guru, Catherine Kaputa. Reach success with these basic steps to improve your looks:
1. Package yourself: clothes will not help you perform but will help how your performance is perceived.
2. Emphasise features: be confident about your looks and build a strong image. Focus on the strong points of your appearance. This means that if you’ve got a good body but an average face, the way you present your body should be optimised.
3. Have a trademark: think Bono’s shades or Sir Robin Day’s bow ties. Stand out from the crowd. But be careful with this tip, it can backfire if you do it wrong.
4. Focus on “soft power”: use your values, style and point of view to attract others to you. Stand tall, and never slouch. Posture adds to one’s confident appearance, and looking confident adds to attractiveness.
5. Hone your speech: the ability to sell yourself and your ideas is critical. Being articulate adds to your attractiveness factor, because it helps you come across as “smart.” It’s a charisma booster, that’s for sure! |
While, my friend Sana is of the opinion, “Some people do use their beauty and charm to get out of work. Take for instance a colleague of mine who’s a real looker but when it comes to work; well the less said the better. Despite that she can wrap anyone around her little finger, as most of us have witnessed, and stay clear of arduous work. And even if the good looking people don’t actively use their charm, they know that it’s a weapon they have at their disposal,” she concluded making us all laugh as we exactly knew who she was talking about and she was 100 percent accurate in her observations.
If we talk about factual findings, it has been recorded that good looking people are better paid than their average unattractive co-workers. And, the difference is not slight. In fact, attractive men and women earn as much as 15 percent more than the worst looking person in their office.
Economists James Andreoni and Ragan Petrie, who carried out the study wrote that this happens even though beautiful people contribute just as much as other workers.
"We find a beauty premium even though beautiful people contribute, on average, no more or less than others," the Daily Mail quoted them, as stating.
"Attractive people make more money than middle attractive people, who in turn make more money than unattractive people," they added.
The researchers found that the reason why attractive people get paid more is because employers ‘expect’ them to behave in a particular way.
"The beauty premium is not due to the actions of attractive people, but seems to be due to the expectations of how attractive people will behave," the research stated. As a part of their study the researchers studied three groups of subjects who were rated according to general perceptions of physical attractiveness.
They noted that while 38 percent of attractive subjects were judged as looking helpful, only 18 percent of 'middle attractive' and only 5 percent of unattractive were thought to be the same. They also noted that such people are more popular and successful.
The American study is reported in the Journal of Economic Psychology.
Whereas some other studies have shown:
• Beautiful women have a better chance of getting jobs and tend to marry higher-earning men.
• Good-looking, slim, tall people tend to earn 5 percent more an hour than their less comely colleagues. After variables like education and experience are factored out, researchers said the “beauty premium” exists across all occupations, and that jobs requiring more interpersonal contact have higher percentages of above-average-looking employees.
• People are more likely to buy items from physically attractive salespersons.
• There’s an assumption that beautiful people are more cooperative and helpful. Attractive people make more money because they found it easier to generate co-operation among their co-workers. But when beautiful people aren’t pulling their weight, their looks count against them and it is the unattractive who come out winners.
• When someone is attractive, we assign many other positive attributes to him or her that has nothing to do with looks.
• From an economic perspective, higher productivity justifies higher income. So the relevant question is whether good looks lead to higher productivity. This is why looks are so important in TV news. A good-looking anchor attracts more viewers. And a bigger audience enables a TV station to charge higher rates. That is a productivity boost created by good looks, so a higher salary is fair.
• There’s a higher beauty premium among private sector lawyers than their government-supported counterparts since private attorneys need to attract and keep clients.
• A study found employers tend to put beauty before brains when hiring staff. Many companies are now more interested in a recruit’s looks, speech, dress sense and personal hygiene than in how well they did at school or university.
