Essay on Time for New Ways of Hiring

Cohen is correct in that hiring for image is essential for good business. It must be effective since all businesses pursue to do so. Hiring for image leads to the increased prices of product, increased sales of products, and can give the impression of authenticity which eventually leads to what businesses want, profit. It also is an important aspect in attracting the teenager group which is a large portion of consumers; Teens are well known for wanting to have a good image due to peer pressure and to be popular at school. The claim that businesses are discriminating are unreasonable; they may only be hiring certain types of people , but that is uncontrollable in pursuing to satisfy their customers ' wants and needs. They are only trying to do what they think will generate the most profit. If most people ask themselves, they would rather choose a place with good looking people than without. However, although it is beneficial for companies, the question of whether is

Today’s jobseeker has tough competition. In our text book readings “Judging by the Cover” (657-658), Bonny Gainley begins the argument of the paper by stating that job seekers must be careful when they make personal choices that initially will affect their chances of entering the workplace. People have a need to be accepted by others just the way they are, in the same way people continue to say, “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, yet people do based solely on their personal appearances. That goes for businesses as well, “[t]he bottom line is that businesses exist to make money. Whether it seems fair or not, most employers do care about the personal appearances of the people they hire because those people represent the business to its customers”.

Along with people who look good wearing the clothes, companies also want people who will bring the look even farther. These companies want the people they hire to expand the image that the consumers see. They can do this by the person alone. It could be their skin tone or their bone structure, but the brands want

Throughout history, handsome people have had better chances at attaining jobs over less-handsome people. In American retail stores, the new growing trend is hiring attractive sale representatives because the company wants to portray a modern image, which is not illegal to do. What is illegal, is to discriminate a potential hiree based on age, sex, or ethnicity. Every store has a different hiring strategy. For example, one may take a lot of pride in hiring for diversity while others may only want blonde haired, blue eyed women. It is important for a business, before they hire a worker, to ask themselves if they are choosing based on professionalism or attractiveness. Many corporations across the country have been sending a message to diversify their staff in order to relate to a variety of consumers, which would lead to a larger network of consumers and evidently, bring in ore money for the company. All in all, discrimination toward a candidate is a complication that continues to grow, which ultimately is a benefit or a detriment for a company.

Unlike many careers where one is judged upon past job experience and educational attainment, modeling is based off one’s looks. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder this leads to blatant racism in the fashion industry when there should

Extensive media sources, as well as literary sources, have been notorious for establishing a certain stereotype of an individual based on physical appearance. This image centers on ones weight, height, hair color, and overall physical beauty. It is reported that these particular attributes may affect ones personal career. No one knows quite why this is the case, but there have been several studies that involve these works, linking whether there is a direct correlation with these results or if it comes down to a discriminative nature. Among some of the most interesting studies, are the ones that deal with bias in the workplace. According to a journal from Labour Economics, Blonde women with no work experience earn 6%–9% less than their non-blonde counterparts (Dechter 2015). The findings show that blondes can have positive, as well as negative, effects in the workplace. The stronger negative effect of blonde hair color is commonly apparent in sales (Dechter 2015). This theory has proven to be true by the sheer presence of customer discrimination, thus showing a lack of blondes in the sales profession (Dechter 2015). “Both negative and positive preferences for blondeness are in line with the prejudices of the “blonde stereotype”, which attributes a series of positive and negative characteristics to young blonde women but not to young blonde men” (Dechter 2015). Based on a study in the UK in 2006, scientists analyzed 500 CEOs and discovered that blondes were very underrepresented compared to men and women with other hair colors (Dickinson 2012). A separate study done in 1996, concluded that after the subjects displayed headshots in their resume during a job interview, blondes were greatly undermined (Dickinson 2012). “Although all the resumes were identical, the blonde applicants were rated as less competent”

A considerable problem in today society is discrimination. Whether it’s based upon race, age, sexuality, or even looks, discrimination is a serious dilemma. Marshal Cohen, a senior industry analyst with the NPD Group, believes that hiring people who are “walking billboards” is critical and essential to a company’s success. The companies who hire based on looks, fail to realize that there are shoppers who do not care about the appearance of the store employees, just as long as they are receiving good customer service. People cannot completely control their appearance and brands like Abercrombie and Fitch, Hollister, and American Apparel should take notice to that.

Wolf discusses the effect that these standards are having on women in the workplace. A woman’s beauty, or lack of it, can be used against her. In 1986, Mechelle Vinson lost a sexual harassment case. “Vinson was young and ‘beautiful’ and carefully dressed. The district court ruled that her appearance counted against her.” (Wolf 38) “In Hopkins v. Price-Waterhouse, Ms. Hopkins was denied a partnership because she needed to learn to ‘walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely,’ and ‘wear makeup’.” She brought in more business than any other employee. (Wolf 39)

After reading the title of the article Why it Hurts to be a Handsome Man on the Job Hunt, I was interested in the approach and results of the investigation. When reading the article I thought it was an interesting subject to study and take into account, because it isn’t something I would ever think could occur within the workplace. The common topics of workplace discussions are typically how women are discriminated against and harassed by men in the office. This new insight of another common discrimination within the workplace caught my attention.

The article named “The ugly vanishes but with them goes talent” written by Lucy Callaway, published in the Financial Times on 19, July 2015, in which the author claims that the companies in nowadays choose to hire only attractive people, who are significantly above the average appearance. The author is also assuming that by doing so the companies are missing the group of potential “stars” and risking by underperformance at work. The article, more or less is based only on the author’s prejudice, she doesn’t have any significant evidence on such a statement, she is irrational and fallacious.

While it does not seem right, employers do care about our appearance. Jobs exist to make money and right now there is a tough job market. With a lot of people out there looking for jobs, employers can afford to be picky. This is not about human rights and freedom, but about free enterprise.

The two applicants will vary in attractiveness. Attractiveness will be determined by the “averageness” of a face; the more attractive face will be a compilation of the average of various facial features common to the Anglo-Saxon genetic disposition. Studies of compilations of average facial traits show that we have a biological preference for the average phenotype because we believe it indicates evolutionary resilient, fertile genotypes (Langlois, Roggman, 1990.) The other profile will be composed of a person with facial features that deviate from the average (example: wide-set eyes, etc.) and as a result are found less attractive.

Lookism is a more and more pressing problem for companies and corporations, that strive to create an equal opportunities work space. The definition of lookism is “bias or discrimination against individuals on the basis of appearance, often unconscious.” This discrimination refers to both people who are not perceived as attractive and those who have to deal with the stereotypes connected to being exceptionally good-looking.

The article “Beauty and the Labor Market” by Daniel S. Hamermesh and Jeff E. Biddle examines the economics of discrimination in the labour market based on looks and the relationship that exists between beauty and labour market earnings. Analyzing, results from several studies, data from various empirical research and surveys; the article identifies the source of earnings differentials related to looks in six distinct and detailed sections.

Discrimination is a real issue that can put a dent in self-esteem and spirit. Unfortunately women and men can experience this at make up counters when they attempt to purchase cosmetics. According to Rhodes " Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but mostly holders tend to agree on what is beautiful"(245) .Often we are discriminated because of our beauty, class, gender, and race. Looks discrimination in the beauty industry happens every day.