(I couldn’t figure out which title to give this…so now we have two.)
This is an odd entry to make. In fact, this is about my ninth draft. The first two involved me talking about Penelope Trunk’s bikini ad space in a less than flattering way. The third and fourth were weepy. The rest were just a mess.
Speaking of messes…
I’m not a Penelope Trunk fan. I’ll say that right up front. I consider her to be a narrow-minded opportunist who doesn’t account for differing personalities and the vagaries of situations. Everything I’ve ever read or heard from her seems predicated upon the notion that her experiences are the only valid ones and her diagnosis of situations are therefore the Righteous Truth. It strikes me as odd simply because it’s the point of view one most frequently encounters in children younger than six. Yet she’s been able to parlay her bizarre sense of object impermenence into a series of paid speaking and writing gigs.
It is her recent writing gig which has caused me to throw my hands up in the air, roll over and expose my soft underbelly to the jackal that is her attitude.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Being overweight or sloppily dressed is worse for your career than being a poor performer.
I’m not saying this is fair, I’m saying it’s true. So manage your weight, and manage the image you project at work, and you’ll do wonders for your career.
Any article which starts off with “discrimination exists–so suck it up and play along!” is really not going to warm my heart. But I can understand it as a valid approach. I know several people from discriminated classes and many times they do just go along to get along because it’s easier. If you’ve already got home drama and family drama and money drama there’s no need to add to the dramapile by telling your boss that you’re gay or by wearing a dashiki to work. I get it. To a point.
But then there’s this.
Before you get up in arms over how unfair it is to discriminate against people who are overweight, consider that there may be some rationale behind it. If you’re overweight, you’re probably not exercising every day.
Bwahahaha! “If you’re black, you’re probably eating fried chicken every day and have babies by five different daddies who are all in jail!”
And the same self-discipline we use to make ourselves exercise regularly and eat in moderation carries over into other aspects of our lives. This is probably why, in a study from Leeds Metropolitan University, people who exercise regularly were found to be better at time-management and more productive than those who don’t.
Because no fat people ever exercise regularly or eat in moderation. We’re all laying around and eating gallons of ice cream while picking lint out of our increasingly hard-to-find navels.
I just don’t even know that I can continue fisking this article, to be quite honest with you. It’s full of generalisations, misinterpretations of scientific studies and warped statements bent into the peculiar pretzel shape required to wrap around Trunk’s twisted worldview.
See what I mean:
So don’t be overweight and don’t dress carelessly. These are just as detrimental to your career as doing your work poorly. And if my bringing this up makes you angry, consider being more forgiving, because anger is a risk factor for obesity. Besides, forgiveness makes people more resilient to difficulties because it’s about seeing the world in a positive light — which is, of course, also good for your image.
What do you say to that? There’s nothing to say. Except what I started my earlier drafts with, and that is that Penelope Trunk is a master provacateur. Her entire careeer is built out of marketing herself in any way possible–whether that means selling ads on her bikini, billing herself as a “career expert” or parlaying prejudice into some sick form of abusive advice. Penelope Trunk isn’t interested in helping anyone other than Penelope Trunk.
She also got the messy desk part wrong. This is what kills you with generalised advice.
In my field, a messy desk is the norm. Mine is super-messy. I am considered a kind of eccentric genius at work (an image that isn’t true, but I nonetheless allowed that image to grow). I daresay my mad scientist image has been a small part of why I am paid well above average for a computer programmer in our town.
If I were a lawyer, or accountant, or doctor, her rule might be true.
Therefore, I wouldn’t trust any other career image advice she gives, because generalisations have many exceptions.
Now, my experience has been that my career goes better when I look better. I understand human nature, and that particular generalisation applies to me. But it doesn’t apply to everyone, in every field.
Who would trust a model thin sous chef, for instance?
I think you nailed this.
This is why I couldn’t sit through her entire talk at BarCamp – it became immediately clear that she was primarily interested in self-promotion. Self-promotion is fine when it’s advertising that you’re doing something of value – when it’s for its own sake alone, you might as well be Paris Hilton.
Irrational. Hate.
And somehow, I’m sure she’s pleased with that.
She makes some valid points. As someone who has worked for dozens of companies, it is more important to be liked than to be an effective worker.
Appearances are everything. Perception is reality. A positive attitude and an acceptable level of mediocrity is preferable to a negative attitude and efficiency (assuming you’re not the owner or President).
However, her material is geared more towards “a professional” work environment isn’t it? The guy who manages an auto repair shop doesn’t yell “Hey Tony, I notice you haven’t been wearing a crisp uniform every morning so I’m going to have to write you up on your Personal Performance Review.”
While she is way off base in terms of things like “you should take long lunches”, their is validity to what she is saying in some corporate cultures depending on geography (i.e., what flies in New York does not fly in Atlanta).
[...] If you think this woman has any concern whatsoever about your job trajectory, you are mistaken. Katherine Coble sums up best why you should ignore this incredibly superficial, yet widely read, wom…: I consider her to be a narrow-minded opportunist who doesn’t account for differing personalities [...]
I kept myself artificially thin for years because I believed the same thing she’s saying (thin=power over yourself and others). And I found it to be true in some respects and not true in others. It certainly does have a lot to do with what industry you’re in; not just if it’s professional or not. I have found, though that it’s not so much as fat vs. thin (though I’ve rarely encountered high-level obese people), but it really is how you dress. I’ve worked with plenty of people who could stand to lose a few pounds, but dressed nicely and it’s worked just fine for them. Alternately, I’ve worked with plenty of thin people who dressed terribly and have remained on the bottom run of the corporate ladder.
There are a lot of factors that apply to these things, but the old saying is true: dress for the job you want; not the job you have. There was really no need for Penelope to get all fattist in her commentary at all.
Oh, but she can’t help it. She is actually notorious for slamming a detractor as insufficient to comment, because “she’s so fat.” She later took the offending blog post down, but not before making a name for herself in doing so.
No, really.
That’s a gross person. Sort of the snobby high school teenager that made a career out of it.
I go to water aerobics three times a week. That’s regular exercise.
I don’t eat the entire pan of brownies. That’s moderation.
“because anger is a risk factor for obesity”
I’m ANGRY… cheeseburger anyone?
katielauren, I’ll take mine with chili cheese fries.
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