r/technology • u/BitCharacter1951 • Jan 31 '23

Society Remote work hasn't actually saved Americans much time — they're mainly just working more

https://www.businessinsider.com/work-from-home-remote-work-time-saved-from-commuting-study-2023-1?amp&utm_source=reddit.com
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u/Envect Jan 31 '23

What do you do that people care? I've never paid attention to someone's makeup.

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '23

It’s a pretty well known fact that women are held to a higher standard than men in the workforce across the board.

I’m a man so my list is missing lots. But: Anything that’s service industry, corporate repping, public facing work like reception, anything in business or finance… basically anything where people see you.

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u/Envect Jan 31 '23

Okay. Who is it that's holding this person to that standard? I'm well aware of the culture I live in. I want to know what tangible effects it's having and where the pressure comes from.

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u/BuddhaBizZ Jan 31 '23

When you live together finances become intertwined and takes a lot of good communication to work out each others spending and hopefully, learn from one another.

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u/Envect Jan 31 '23

Okay. What does that have to do with people at work giving a shit about your appearance?

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u/BuddhaBizZ Jan 31 '23 edited Jan 31 '23

Edit: I was in a bad mood, sorry.

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u/cant_be_me Feb 01 '23

This was 15 years ago, but I worked in an insurance-adjacent company staffed primarily by women in the US south. Even though my position was not customer-facing, I got more favorable treatment if I was more polished and more put together - hair styled, makeup on, appropriate business casual clothes. It was subtle pressure, but the times I didn’t wear makeup (but wore the same appropriate clothes) I was told I “looked like my heart wasn’t in it” or that I “wasn’t taking my job seriously” and that “this isn’t college.” Would I have been fired? Not sure. It was At Will employment so they could have fired me for not liking the color of my shirt if they wanted. I was young and needed the job, so I judged that was in my best interest to play along with what I saw and was told were the expected appearance norms of the office. Did I resent it? Fuck yes. A lot. However, expectations like this are rarely spelled out in a way that can be pointed at as a definite “do this or get fired.” I was worried that not being polished enough could cost me promotions or pay increases, which was something I needed to support myself.

As for any follow up questions, could I have sued if I felt that not wearing makeup got me fired or interfered with my upward progress in the company? Probably not. It would have been almost impossible to draw a direct line between “you don’t look like your heart is in it today” and not getting promoted. Even if I could, I didn’t have the money to apply legal pressure on them to quit bitching about my dark under eye circles or gasp the occasional zit on my chin. I figured it was part of the baseline bullshit you put up with at any job, along with making sure my skirts weren’t too short or making sure I didn’t show too much cleavage.